Rick Heath: Not all cartoonists are as consistently offensive as Luckovich

To The Daily Sun,

Thank you for the editorial in Friday's paper. I too was deeply offended by the "Police-Racist" trash that Luckovich would call a cartoon. I have made my voice heard in the past about his offensive efforts but got little more than "we try to be fair and balanced" from the paper. I find the pure hatred he has for anything conservative or moderate is divisive, disturbing and, like this latest tripe, DANGEROUS.

I am a news junkie and The Sun is my first read at between 4 and 5 a.m. each morning. Although The Sun displays leftist leanings in some of its "news," I appreciate that the paper generally keeps news as news and opinion as opinion... one lesson my generation was taught in 5-6th grade "current events" and reinforced in high school civics.

Luckovich is generally offensive. I get it that he tries to gin-up people. However, all too often he is way over the top. I have often kept a tally of how many times he appears in your paper vs. others. His pieces have way outweighed any other single political cartoonist appearances. There are a plethora of political cartoonists out there. I would suggest you limit Luckovich to once or twice a month (surely you can pick one or two in a month that has a modicum of taste?) AND once in a while, pick out from the crowd of artists one who is showing the right side of the aisle's point of view.

I don't believe that one man's poison should ruin the stew. I don't believe the other political cartoonists should be taken off the page (unless they get as out of control nasty as Luckovich) while only one needs the punishment.

I also want to say that I appreciate the occasional editorials both from the editor AND guest editorials (best opportunity to spell out both sides). I'd like to see more as it is a chance to opine on local issues in a spotlight. And while we are talking about cartoons, I love that you have all the funny ones you have. I personally have a crush on Lola and Hagar but I read them all.

Rick Heath

Moultonborough