Long-time AAEC members Gary Huck and Mike Konopacki are currently showing their cartoons in an exhibition at Cornell University, where they have come under attack from conservative and liberal critics on campus and off-campus.
Some have complained about the use of certain symbols, such as swastikas and Confederate flags. Others have implied rape imagery. Still others note that the cartoons solely attack the GOP.
Political cartoons employ imagery to make a point. Sometimes the meaning of the imagery is clear, sometime it is more ambiguous. But to willfully project an unintended meaning to a cartoon is offensive to the artist and the free expression of ideas.
In the case of Mr. Huck and Mr. Konopacki, there is absolutely nothing in the use of their imagery that is anything other than within the finest traditions of American editorial cartooning.
Mr. Huck and Mr. Konopacki are owed the full exposition of their work at Cornell, attendees of the exhibition deserve to see all of their work with no censorship, and the AAEC Board urges Cornell to be mindful that a university is a marketplace of ideas, and not a place for censorship or fear.
The AAEC Board of Directors strongly supports Mr. Huck and Mr. Konopacki.
