Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 03, 2011

Ray should be teaching the class!!!

How true is this? I mean, BD’s two remarks are obviously prejudicial, meaning they wouldn’t be allowed in a court of law. However, there has to be at least partial truth to what he says. I feel for Ray. He’s a “sitting duck” no matter which way he turns, no matter where he goes. The government is going to give him a raw deal. If he re-ups, he’s dog food. His wife doesn’t seem to want him back. His only hope is BD. Thank God at least for that!

What does “I figure gut” mean?

thanks RSR. I appreciate your reply. that’s a new one on me.

DT3.14 & LWP,Just read your various comments about accessing the archives yesterday. I suspect you would be interested in the original story arcs where BD and Ray first meet and when Ray returns home. Will take a little research, but I’ll try and find those two story arcs for you. Need to walk our dog and go to work first though!Mike

The Walden where B.D. has taken Ray exists only in the memory of GBT and his coevals. Younger readers who attended college after 1968 or who didn’t go to college won’t know that a gut course (shortened here to gut) is sixties slang for an undemanding college class.If Brian Dowling (B.D.‘s prototype at Yale with GBT) walked into a classroom the first day, all the other students applauded—-not because he was a football star, but because his enrolling meant that the class was a gut.I haven’t heard college students use the term for the past thirty years, maybe because they no longer have the luxury (unless they’re subsidized athletes) of taking work-free courses.

I bet it’s taught by a vet.

Actually, “gut” seems to make sense any way it’s been taken so far. Isn’t English an amazingly flexible language?

GT feels comfortable when he’s backing those who rule by apartheid. His ploy of using a character who happens to be black is GT’s way of making apartheid in the Middle East seem all right. But bishop Tutu knows apartheid when he sees it, wherever it may be.

Discharged in Spring 1967. I attended University of Mass in Fall of 67. They had to take me, state law. Until I found some other vets it was a living hell. I meant for the students that gave me s***.

I think maybe Ray IS teaching the class.

College is conducted on the web these days…what a great deal! Nephew gets home from Iraq and can take his classes from his living room. In a few months, his degree will be in hand and he can re-up and go to Afghanistan. What a country!

My experience is that Ray will be a sitting duck in the class. When I started college at a small school in 1969 and it became known that I had just been discharged from the Air Force, I was expected to explain, justify, and apologize for the entire Vietnam War. Even after I made it clear that my eight years of service were in Germany, Texas, and Turkey, I was still treated as the authority.

This turned out to be not such a bad thing, as esoteric little details of military life would garner me points in discussion and on tests, and the faint whiff of [imaginary] combat about me led to many enjoyable social encounters.

Graduated in ‘67, just in time for ’68’sTet – I believe we called gut courses “basket weaving.”

“Gut” is still slang for an easy course. Actually, Brian Dowling did not seek gut courses.I thought that B.D. had become more thoughtful, but declaring anyone who opposed the invasion & occupation of Iraq a “radical” is extremely thoughtless and thoughtlessly extreme. Huge numbers of Americans opposed Bush-Cheney’s corrupt, bloody invasion, and, by now, almost all Americans agree with us.

Ever notice the different views of war by the grunt on the ground, the general in the war room, the politician on the campaign trail, the reporters at NYT and WSJ, and the grieving widow? Wonder why that is?

Since he’s auditing, a grade isn’t in the picture.

I returned to college after military service in 1971. I joined the campus veteran’s club almost immediately. By this time, most the non-Vietnam Vets were spooked out of the club. We were hard-partying animals, and some of us were worse-behaved than many of the Greeks. Many of us actually graduated.

I can’t believe that after all he’s been through, BD STILL supports this illegal war!!!——————————————————— How much does BD speak in terms of war support now? He used to be a real “hawk” instead of a Dick Cheney style “chicken hawk”, which means calling people (like me) “American chicken” for openly opposing all the wars since WWII, which I super-supported (as much as a pre-pubescent could) and still do. But he never served so much of a day in one of our country’s service uniforms.  W, Bush’s case is murkier, deliberately so, and as such, suspicious. He was an aircraft “pilot” who apparently never flew outside of Texas and Alabama and probably went permanently AWOL — never finishing his required military service time. I’ve even heard the point argued — by a frothing angry GOP radio talk-show host — that his 8 years as President counted for military service with all the kudos and benefits thereunto appertaining — since he was “commander in chief”. Laugh (if anti-W); don’t laugh (if pro-W).

“ray go to class armed that’ll keep the questions down a bit”————————————————— And what if a loud bang — like a frustrated, disgusted dude in Walden’s library slamming his textbook down hard on a table — occurs? Suppose Ray’s PTSD kicks in. Does he perforate the dude’s bod with his piece?

Man, Doonesbury has impressed me more and more lately.

Har! After 13 years Navy (never been on a ship), my son is back in school and taking a polysci class. The prof started out the first day “revisionist”, but very “Bush could do no wrong with our current wars.” and a VERY “right wing interpretation” text. Uh, correction factor necessary. When they had to put nation names and capitols on a blank map of outlines, my son was breezing through- his neighbor asked, “How do you know all those places?” He responded, “I’ve been to more than half of them.” He’s been having an “interesting” and basically good time in the class. His professor has called on his experiences and expertise as a “been there, done that”, to correct the text, and place the “real world” in context, especially regarding Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other places.

After ‘Nam, I went back to school in ’69, a couple classrooms without windows were my biggest “problem”. Never heard “gut course”, but the “liberal arts” component for a degree hardly needed study, no basket weaving, but they didn’t seem much higher on intellectual requirement. I was treated well by most other students, but didn’t “bring up” my experiences, unless with other vets who’d “been there, done that”. At one anti-war rally, I did speak. It was interesting that the folks DID want to hear the real scoop, and understand the “complexities” of that total screw-up from an insiders perspective. As I’ve noted, I’m “anti-war” (yes, ‘Nam did that), but certainly NOT a “pacifist” (’Nam did that too) – it tended to bend folks minds a bit, from “civilian” perspective on both sides.

2011 isn’t 1971. Most of Ray’s 18 – 22 year old classmates won’t care much about Iraq or the politics that led to our involvement. They will be worried about whether they’ll ever get a job after graduation.

I’ve heard the term “gut” for “Easy Pass”, but it may have been through media rather than personal experience. In my college days (early 80’s) I wouldn’t have used the term but, had I heard someone else use it, I would have understood.

Trudeau’s done this sort of thing a couple of times before. In the 70’s he had a returning Vietnam vet (POW, no less) who entered Walden as a Freshman. His (much younger) classmates were kind of in awe of him, as I recall.

We still used “gut” when I was a grad student at harvard 10 years ago. although I think the term was somewhat relative.

For those interesting, the following links show the first 10 months of BD and Ray’s friendship from Sept 1990 through to August 1991 Ray appearshttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1990/09/24 http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1990/10/16 Gifts from Home – Sunday specialhttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1990/11/04 http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1990/11/19 Talking Christmas cardshttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1990/12/10 Sargeant BDhttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/01/14 WIA (2-week arc)http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/02/04 Return of the WIAhttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/04/22 BD returns homehttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/05/06 Readjusting at homehttp://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/05/13 Lacey visits Ray (2-week arc)http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/06/24 Ray returns home (2-week arc)http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/07/22

Enjoy

I thought as a result of losing a leg, BD had become less hawkish.

Well, I think I’ve learned something finally. Namely, when someone accuses Trudeau (or probably any cartoonist) of being prejudiced, that person (gladlythecrosseyedbear in this case) is a troll and may comfortably be ignored. Otherwise, as in the past, I’d be trying to figure out what they meant, whether I agreed, etc. Now I can save my energy for worthwhile things!

@doughfoot: “Does it reflect ANY truth amid the hyperbole and distortion, and Is it funny?” very, very well said!