Name: Kansas GOP official apologizes for cartoon comparing mask mandate to the Holocaust
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Kansas GOP official apologizes for cartoon comparing mask mandate to the Holocaust

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This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareOn Friday, the Anderson County Review, a rural Kansas newspaper, posted a cartoon to Facebook in response to from Gov. Laura Kelly (D). The in a face covering emblazoned with the Star of David over a photo of Jews in Nazi Germany, with the caption: “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask … and step onto the cattle car.” After a weekend , the paper’s owner and publisher, who is also a GOP county chairman, pulled the cartoon and apologized on Sunday.“After some heartfelt and educational conversations with Jewish leaders in the U.S. and abroad, I can acknowledge the imagery in my recent editorial cartoon … was deeply hurtful to members of a culture who’ve been dealt plenty of hurt throughout history — people to whom I never desired to be hurtful in the illustration of my point,” Dane Hicks .AdvertisementThe conflict over the cartoon highlights the continuing culture wars over masks, even as the nation for coronavirus infections and more the chorus of experts urging Americans to cover their faces to slow the virus’s spread.Before apologizing, Hicks over the weekend, calling his critics “liberal Marxist parasites” and insisting the cartoon was fair commentary on a statewide mask order he suggested was “authoritarian.” Kelly’s order, which mandates most Kansans to wear masks in public spaces, took effect Friday after a week that saw more than. As of early Monday, Kansas has recorded more than 16,000 cases and 283 deaths.The mandate does allow counties to opt out, and Anderson County, where Hicks’s newspaper is based, has already done so. But Hicks, the longtime chairman of the Anderson County Republican Party, said in that he was still so outraged by Kelly’s order that he used Photoshop to make the cartoon last week.After he posted the image to the Review’s Facebook page, it drew swift condemnation, with Kelly calling it “deeply offensive” and Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (D) slamming it as “appalling” and “disgusting.” (Kansas Republican Party Chairman Michael Kuckelman later “inappropriate,” but also defended Hicks’s right to post it.)AdvertisementIllinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) added his voice to the outrage, calling the image “another disgusting display by ignorant Republicans who fail to understand that their propaganda is costing lives.” Another disgusting display by ignorant Republicans who fail to understand that their propaganda is costing lives. I helped build the Illinois Holocaust Museum to fight exactly this kind of hate. America is better than this. — Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker)“This thing is like the trifecta of garbage,” Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action, told the AP.At first, Hicks also refused to budge under the wave of criticism, asking to whom he should apologize.“The critics on the Facebook page?” he wrote in a Saturday . “I would never apologize to them. They’re liberal Marxist parasites.” Cartoons, he wrote, are “gross over-caricatures designed to provoke debate and response — that’s why newspapers publish them — fodder for the marketplace of ideas.” He criticized Kelly for shutting down the state earlier this year and argued her mask order “would have certainly led to a resurgence in the ‘freak out factor’ with Kansans being reminded of the virus everywhere they turned, resulting in a new wave of economic malaise.” AdvertisementBut on Sunday, Hicks admitted he was wrong to equate government orders to wear masks with the deaths of millions of Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany.“It is not my intention to heap more pain onto this historical burden, and it’s apparent I previously lacked an adequate understanding of the severity of their experience and the pain of its images,” he wrote. “To that end, I am removing the cartoon with apologies to those so directly affected.” The latest: , a strategic shift that puts more of the onus on individuals, rather than on schools, businesses and other institutions, to limit viral spread.Variants: BA.5 is the most recent omicron subvariant, and it’s quickly become the dominant strain in the U.S. , and why vaccines may only offer limited protection.Vaccines: For people under 50, while the Biden administration works to roll out shots . Immunizations for became available this summer. Here’s by your prior infections and booster history.Guidance: CDC guidelines have been confusing — if you get covid, here’s . We’ve also created .Where do things stand? See the latest coronavirus numbers and . The is behind much of the recent spread.For the latest news, . CommentsGift ArticleTOP STORIESVisual StoriesTired of reading? Stories that explain the news through charts, maps, photography and videos.Try a different topic or to save your preferences

This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareOn Friday, the Anderson County Review, a rural Kansas newspaper, posted a cartoon to Facebook in response to from Gov. Laura Kelly (D). The in a face covering emblazoned with the Star of David over a photo of Jews in Nazi Germany, with the caption: “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask … and step onto the cattle car.” After a weekend , the paper’s owner and publisher, who is also a GOP county chairman, pulled the cartoon and apologized on Sunday.“After some heartfelt and educational conversations with Jewish leaders in...

Kansas GOP official apologizes for cartoon comparing mask mandate to the Holocaust

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