I wish I could introduce them to you. They were sincere and direct
and respectful to a degree I have never experienced in my day-to-day
life here. And if something were to have posed a threat to any of us
while we were there, I had no doubt they would have protected us before
they protected themselves.

Obviously, you can’t pack your bags and book a Southwest flight to
Baghdad. But that’s not necessary. Because it doesn’t take flying to
Baghdad to have an impact.

You see, things that might not mean much in your daily routine — the
receipt of a package, a letter, a phone call, an email — can mean the
world to one of them. It makes the gap between us and...

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I wish I could introduce them to you. They were sincere and direct
and respectful to a degree I have never experienced in my day-to-day
life here. And if something were to have posed a threat to any of us
while we were there, I had no doubt they would have protected us before
they protected themselves.

Obviously, you can’t pack your bags and book a Southwest flight to
Baghdad. But that’s not necessary. Because it doesn’t take flying to
Baghdad to have an impact.

You see, things that might not mean much in your daily routine — the
receipt of a package, a letter, a phone call, an email — can mean the
world to one of them. It makes the gap between us and them that much
smaller. So whatever you can do, no matter how small, do it. Do just
one thing for one soldier in a hospital or overseas.

For me, I was fortunate enough to know a cartoonist named Jeff
Bacon. While having absolutely no skill at ping pong and even less
hair, he put together a trip under the sponsorship of the USO so that
ten cartoonists could visit the military hospitals in Washington D.C.
and Germany, and the military bases in Kuwait and Iraq. And it
brought an unbelievable amount of joy to a huge number of people. As
one dad said to us as we were leaving his wounded son’s hospital room,
“That is the first time I’ve seen him smile since he got here.”

Of all the things I’ve been lucky enough to accomplish in my
eight-year cartooning career, I have never been as proud of anything as
I was to be associated with those other nine cartoonists: Jeff Bacon,
Chip Bok, Bruce Higdon, Garry Trudeau, Rick Kirkman, Mike Peters, Mike
Ramirez, Jeff Keane and Tom Richmond.