I was mildly disturbed by this cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz who draws "La Cucaracha" which is syndicated nationally. Not outraged, just disturbed.

Mr. Alcaraz draws his humor from the situation of lower-middle class Latinos who are not happy with the way "the man" is running things. That's fine, although like Boondocks and Doonesbury the humor is often more political than situational. I'm not sure if most comic page editors have figured this out yet - at least they haven't in Dallas.

What bothers me about this particular strip is that he seems to assume that if a family is white and religious (e.g. the Family Circus characters), they must be Republicans. The not too subtle message is that white families are not only the enemy of Latino progress, but are obnoxious about it as well. Reagrdless of the cartoonist's beliefs, The Family Circus is all about love and respect and not about preaching and is certainly not political by any strecth of the imagination.

It's a shame that in a field where so few can find success, that some have to be so divisive with respect to their colleagues.

Now let's move La Cucaracha off the "funnies" page along with Boondocks and Doonesbury. I do enjoy reading them all, but please keep them away from agenda-less comics like Dilbert and Hagar the Horrible.

Will anyone ever be loved universally like Charles M. Schulz? See this tribute to "Peanuts" by the competition, all published on Saturday, May 27, 2000 in honor of the National Cartoonists Society awarding Charles "Sparky" Schulz a Lifetime Achievement Award.