In Friday’s Daily Nick Guroff attacked my ability to satirize, read a newspaper and put together an intelligent thought as it related to Wednesday’s International Monetary Fund cartoon. Guroff regaled me with a lesson in satire. He had it wrong. Satire is something that’s both funny and falls within the political agenda of Mr. Guroff. (Example: Knock knock. Who’s there? The IMF condones practices oppressive to workers. Agreed. [Hold for laughs.])

I wasn’t taking a stand last week on the practices of the IMF. I satirized what truly was ripe for satire: the impotent organization and commitment of protesters and the undefined overlying agenda of the protests.

Guroff must have missed the articles in the Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal that gave me all the fodder I used as source material. I am not ignorant on the subjects I address.

The changes our generation wants to make are too varied, and our protests lean closer to the realm of self-parody than real persuasion. Our parents had a simple goal: to end the war. As noble as Guroff and others think they are, “Down with globalization” is no, “Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” Guroff called me “ignorant.” I call him stupid. Stupid to think that his profound indignation on a wealth of causes does anything but make him feel better about himself. Our generation’s protests do more to help us feel like we’re doing something, anything, than they do to institute any real change.

You have your soapboxes representing your agendas and you use it all the time. I, as a cartoonist, have my own soapbox. Mine represents realism and the apathetics that populate this school and every other. I wish the good intentions of people and the hard work that they do led to real positive change, but I also implore those with good intentions and noble causes to not point a holier-than-thou finger at people like myself when it turns out that good intentions and noble causes are not enough.