Dear Editor,
I am writing to you in regards to the political cartoon that was published on Page 3 of the Feb. 24 issue of the East Tennessean.
First of all, I am appalled that this university would condone such a cartoon of four military servicemen laughing and smoking cigars in front of a casket that proudly bears a sign saying “Help Wanted: Positions Available Inside.”
I am a proud veteran who helped to defend this country I call America, and I did it honorably in the U.S. Navy for seven long years.
I served in harm’s way on more than one occasion, and my life, along with 325 of my shipmates, was nearly taken for this great country I call America by the terrorists of Al-Qaeda prior to Sept. 11, 2001.
The only reason you have a right to publish this distasteful filth I call “crap” is because I, along with the veterans I served with and those across this campus, gave you that right to do so.
I think that they would stand by me 100 percent when I say that what you published disgraces us and our fellow brothers and sisters who are fighting in Iraq shedding blood for freedom.
I feel that an apology is definitely in order for all of the veterans, and even if I have to take my case up all the way up to Dr. Stanton, the president of this university, I will.
You should have never placed this cartoon in the paper, nor should you have even thought about it.
Joshua Noble Hammitt

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