Auchtoon!

To all I wish peace, love, and good health this holiday season and throughout the new year!

For my fellow Christians, I also want to note that we have some big responsibilities in 2017. I mean, we always do, but because the election of Donald Trump was largely our doing, we owe it to ourselves and our country to be particularly attentive.

The election is finally and officially over. So no matter the reason we voted for Trump (a single issue, the lesser of two evils, wholehearted support), the reason no longer matters. He will be the President. And as Christians it is our duty to hold him to our Christ-inspired standards for leadership: compassion, selflessness, honesty, and integrity.

It won’t be easy. (Following Christ never is — He was pretty clear about that.) Still, I am hopeful that if we act not as an inward facing tribe but as a community living the tenets of our faith we can have a positive influence on the President we elected.

Merry Christmas!

You may think that I’m kidding about Flint hitting up Russia for a little help. I’m not sure that I am. It’s been three years now. Three years of unsafe drinking water in Flint. Michigan. USA. And as recent stories on Michigan Radio will tell you, there is no clear indication as to when the situation will be totally fixed.

So why not hand Mr. Putin another propaganda victory? There doesn’t seem to any shame or consequence to that anymore. In fact, in this post-thinking, it’s-all-about-feeling world, it pays dividends. If those Russian computer scamps can plant stories and hack their way into our election system, they can certainly transfer some funds to pay for pipe replacement. Who cares where the money comes from?

Up is down. Down is up. And — above all — the end justifies the means. So, please, go ahead and at least check into it, Mayor Weaver. As our new besty comrades used to say, “Morally ambiguous leaders of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your souls!” (Okay. That’s not exactly accurate, but I don’t see how that matters.)

In writing these little “support” articles for my cartoons over the years, more than a few readers have made a point of telling me how much they hate having the cartoon “explained” to them. They feel the cartoon should stand on its own, and it definitely should. I get that. My intention is not to explain the cartoon but to add context to the subject, present a counter-view, or provide bonus value.

However, if you are one of those readers, you might want to move on because I’m gonna straight up explain this one.

The point of the cartoon: Telling people to shut up, stop whining, and get over it is unkind and if you are doing it, I am trying to shame you into stopping by pointing out the company that you are keeping.

It’s not about sides, it’s not political parties. I know all the rabbit holes we can take this down. “But Obama…” and “Well, Bush and Gore…” and “I just feel that…” and so on. It’s not about any of that either. It’s about trying to be a better human being.

Also, you should know that my entire memory of Family Feud comes from being sick as kid, staying home from school, and watching it on daytime TV. I assume the current incarnation is the same thing. I didn’t research it beyond noting that the host is different. (Steve Harvey doesn’t get all smoochy with the ladies the way Richard Dawson used to, does he? I sure hope not.)

When the president-elect nominated Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education last week, the most obvious metaphor seemed to be the fox put in charge of the hen-house. I rolled that around in my head for awhile but couldn’t make it work. I don’t think DeVos is that carnivorous or the education establishment that docile. (Plus drawing anthropomorphic characters is not really my strong suit. So, as is often the case, laziness wins.)

This cartoon worked much better because it reveals my main issue with the DeVos nomination: She’s a crank. A crank (for lack of a better term, let me know if there is one) is a person caught up in her own thoughts, plans, and ideology — dogmatically indifferent to the consequences. It’s been my experience that nearly every organization has one — work group, school board, sports team, professional society, whatever.

And for the most part, it’s good to have a crank. They provide a vital service: They keep everybody else honest. Nobody wants to set the crank off, so we tend to plan more carefully. For example, say you’re the chair of a church committee to raise funds for a mission trip. There is consensus for a pancake breakfast, but there is a crank on the finance team who believes with all her heart that using food for fundraising is a grave sin. If indeed you want to move forward, you will make sure to organize a solid and defensible plan. (Or you may decide to go with a bikini car wash instead, which oddly she has no problem with.)

But the last thing you want is for the crank to be in charge. Cranks by their nature are “my way or the highway” types and likely with a chip on the shoulder from having been handled and circumvented so much in the past. (Think Dwight Schrute from the TV series “The Office.”)

Of course, I’m prejudging here. Ms. DeVos may turn out to be the second coming of Eleanor Roosevelt — a determined woman from the privileged class who used her position to serve the poor and disenfranchised. But if I had to bet, I’d put my money on Dwight Schrute.