The Enemy....

One of my favorite cartoons was Walt Kelly's Possum character Pogo and the strip he and his animal friends inhabited. I'm sure that Granny well remembers Pogo.
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Pogo
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Pogo as drawn by Walt Kelly.....................................................

Pogo was the title of a long running (1948-75) daily comic strip
created by Walt Kelly, as well as the name of its principal
character. Set in the Georgia section of the Okefenokee Swamp,
Pogo often engaged in social and political satire through the
adventures of the strip's funny animals....

Kelly's creativity earned him a Reuben Award in 1951.

(excerpts from Wikipedia)

An amusing fact: Suspicious and paranoid J.Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI for far too long, was convinced that Kelly's cartoons bore subversive messages and had his agents waste time attempting to "decode" the non-existent "secret" messages.
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We have met the enemy...."

Pogo strip from Earth Day, 1971.Copyright 1971, 2005 OGPI

Probably the most famous Pogo quotation is "we have met the enemy and he is us." More than any other words written by Kelly, it perfectly sums up his attitude towards the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human condition.

The quote, a rephrasing of a message sent in 1813 from US Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to Army General William Henry Harrison after The Battle of Lake Erie stating "We have met the enemy, and they are ours," first appeared in a lengthier form in A Word To The Fore, the foreword of the book The Pogo Papers. ...

"Specializations and markings of individuals everywhere abound in such profusion that major idiosyncrasies can be properly ascribed to the mass. Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. ...

"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.

"Forward!"

The finalized version of the quotation appeared in a 1970 anti-pollution poster for Earth Day, ....(above right)

Since then the quote has been used on various cartoons and posters and addressing different isssues, as well as take-offs on the quote.

(excerpts from Wikipedia)
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Walt Kelly died in 1975, long before the Chimperor declared himself the Imperial Decider, so did not draw the cartoon below. Kelly is properly credited for the quote.



The enemy thus identified, one way to defeat him is according to Granny's post below. And we are also the enemy if we practise do-nothings.