This letter was originally sent last week to the Editor of the NZ Catholic.
Dear Editor
I am writing to voice my concern about two cartoons run concurrently in issues 631 and 632, which appear to be addressing the anti mandate protests in Wellington, where the protesters are personified as possums, the priest is Cardinal John Dew and the dog is either the deeper thoughts of the Cardinal, or the voice of the author. At worst the dog, in the author’s mind, reflects the Catholic Faithful.
The cartoons should never have been published and in my opinion are extremely rash and imprudent. Mainstream media images and citizen journalism showed that the majority of occupation participants were mainstream Kiwis. People from all walks of life were represented including a number of religious and many, many lay Catholics.
On the last day a group of troublemakers with alternative motives appeared; they harmed property and affronted police who ended the protest as they began, with violence against a peaceful group. Anyone who was watching the various social media live streams of the event as it unfolded could see this.
Monson’s depiction of this group as possums is a shameful act of dehumanisation in the same vein as historical portrayals of Jews as vermin.
Trevor Mallard also took this position when he tarred protesters as filthy and unclean, describing the protesters as “the biggest collection of ferals that I’ve ever seen”. The rumor was firmly put to rest when flushing toilets were fitted to the mains in response to police who deliberately blockaded the port-a-loos preventing their maintenance.
This depiction of the protesters as unclean possums is not only inaccurate, its message contradicts the Gospel. The tax collectors and the Roman soldiers were mainstream citizens who were hated by the Jews. Christ’s challenging message to the Jews was to love them, all of them, as God does.
Monson has missed the mark. We should be accustomed to reading political satire; in our own political history it has succeeded in showing up corrupt governance, ie Scott vs Muldoon. However, Monson’s pen is misdirected because the protesters were not in authority or lofty positions of leadership.
In reality Monson’s depiction supports Ardern’s creation of two classes of citizens.
Following the announcement of the traffic light system a reporter from the NZ Herald asked about the creation of two classes of citizens – between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, Ardern responded with a smile saying, “That is what it is, yep, yep”. Clearly, Monson’s cartoons are supporting Ardern’s plan for a two tier society and are in fact propaganda with no place in a newspaper with a Catholic readership.
In fairness, Monson is reflecting the sentiments of the church hierarchy who have made it clear that vaccination is not a sin and should be taken for the greater good.
On Ash Wednesday, as the occupation was overrun by vandals and the last of the occupiers were battered and violently forced off parliament grounds by police, Cardinal Dew posted his own take of the situation playing out in his neighbourhood. On his Facebook page he described the protesters and the difficulty of living in the area. “I realized that I needed to see in others that they too are daughters and sons of God”, a Gospel trope followed by a faux pas, “Although it was hard to admit that God sees goodness in those creating the disturbance”.
This post was published in the morning, but shortly after, to the Cardinal’s credit, the page was unavailable and the post removed but not before it was screenshotted for posterity’s sake, so we won’t forget the Cardinal’s reflection on mainstream New Zealanders and so we can be reminded to forgive.
Ironically, had the MSM been running satire pieces questioning Ardern’s emergency pandemic response and the mandates, Monson would perhaps not have created the awful cartoons and the Cardinal, who denied the Eucharist to Wellingtonians under level 2 for an extended period beyond emergency law requirements, may not have revealed his thoughts about the “ferals” impinging on his right to exist peacefully and freely in his inner city neighborhood.
Helen M
