I was looking through one of my Grandma’s scrapbooks this evening looking for a cartoon about Mother’s Day. I remembered seeing it while looking for something else a couple months ago. I did find what I was looking for, and it will make an appearance later this week or on Sunday.

While hunting for the Mother’s Day cartoon, I ran across another Frank Miller cartoon.

Frank Andrea Miller was an editorial cartoonist for the Des Moines Register from 1953 until his death in 1983. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1963 for a cartoon about nuclear warfare.

This cartoon was drawn just after the Cuban Revolution and while Cold War tensions were heightening. We were worried about Cuba’s relationship with Russia and were rapidly approaching the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

We live in a time of grave crises, tyrannical threats against us, and ominous possibility of catastrophic war. This can be met with despair, fear and fatalistic apathy…

…Or it can be met with spirit, courage and thoughtful action. For it was under just such trying conditions that this nation had its beginnings.

I really like the images that represent the two years on the opposite sides of the text. The weapons of war and enemies had changed, but it was still the American spirit and courage that kept our country moving forward with thoughtful action.

Today we see similar themes as we face an entirely different enemy and methods of warfare. Again we must meet our challenges with spirit, courage and thoughtful action.

Steven