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Opus: Where he belongs
Published: 11/2/2008 9:49 PM
Last Modified: 11/2/2008 9:49 PM

Of course.

In the pages of the most gentle of places.

The final "Opus" ran in Sunday's Tulsa World, among hundreds of other papers, as well as online at places such as Salon.com. In order to know the conclusion of this little penguin's epic journey, one needs to go to HumaneSociety.org/opus.

Those of you who have happily followed Opus from his days in "Bloom County" to the present, it would probably be a good idea to have a handkerchief handy.

I've enjoyed all manner of comics through the years, still read them avidly. I joke that I modeled my career after that of Cosmo Fishhawk, the tweed coated eagle in Jeff MacNelly's "Shoe" (although there is probably more truth than humor in that characterization).

But Opus has always been the happy innocent I think most of us wish we could be, the indefatigable optimist, the inner child adjusting as well as can be expected on the outside.

Berke Breathed, Opus' creator, said he made the decision to send Opus to a final home in order to spare having to subject the little fellow to what Breathed sees as the ugly times to come. I can understand that feeling -- the empty viciousness of American politics has been on sickening display this past year. The problem is, that is all that politics has become. Thomas Jefferson once said, "When a man casts longing eyes upon offices, a rottenness begins in his soul."

That rottenness has been on gleeful display -- not just in the napalm-laced mud being slung in campaigns high and low, but in the everyday actions of most of the people who have clawed their way to some seat of public power.

Power. That's the problem. Everyone thinks politics is about power. Politics -- no, public service, something that few people in politics have much interest in -- public service is about responsibility. Politics is the artful avoidance of personal responsibility, and the equally artful placing of blame on someone -- anyone -- else.

No wonder Breathed sought to have his beloved character be tucked away within the pages of "Goodnight, Moon."

Would that the rest of us -- those outside the covers of that book -- have at least one night of such peace.

Oh yeah...don't forget to vote.



Reader Comments 2 Total
dean (4 years ago)
So well said. Thank you.

But the problem is more than the nasty campaign rhetoric or the actions of politicians. Read, if you dare, the online comments below almost any of the World's stories on politics, federal or local. The caustic effects of the campaigns have trickled down. This is the way we talk to our friends and landsmen. God help us.

And re: a night of peace. I'm not a doctor, but my father was, so maybe I can help you. I prescribe alcohol as needed. Hope your HMO covers it.
watts (4 years ago)
I'm not entirely sure if the present distress many people have with politics in general is because of verbal sewage trickled down or rising up from below. But in either case, you are very much correct -- hatred born of fear and ignorance and selfishness seems endemic in our society. Our political mess is simply a reflection, a condensation of that.

As for your prescription, thanks but mind-altering substances aren't what I had in mind. I'd rather follow the advice of a different sort of physician, who prescribed Ecclesiastes 9:9-10.
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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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