The life of a cartoon star isn’t easy. Besides from having to endure grueling rehearsal schedules and suffer countless pratfalls, now their personal lives are under scrutiny. Right on the heels of the Spongebob controversy, a bunny named Buster is being accused of tearing the moral fabric of our society.
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings busted Buster and his program “Postcards from Buster” because when he went to Vermont to learn about how to make maple sugar, the family running the maple farm happened to be gay. It amazes me how quick our newly appointed education secretary slammed Buster, attempting to jeopardize his career. I’m wondering if she has ever actually watched the show. If she had she would know that Buster, armed with his digital camera, has visited families all over the United States. These families have been very diverse from all different religious, ethnic and social backgrounds including Christian, Muslims, Jews, Latinos, blacks, Native Americans, farmers, cloggers, rodeo wranglers, single moms, grandparents raising children and kids with step parents, trying to live up to his contract.
According to the government Request For Proposal for his show, the Ready-to-Learn governmental grant was looking for a program that would “appeal to all of America’s children by providing them with content and or characters with which they can identify. Diversity will be incorporated into the fabric of the series to help children understand and respect differences and learn to live in a multicultural society.” I guess that respect does not include a little girl with two mommies.
Spelling was so distraught about Buster’s visit to the maple syrup farm that she wrote a very stern letter to PBS warning that, “You can be assured that in the future the department will be more clear as to its expectations for any future programming that it funds.” I guess it wasn’t made clear to the bunny that celebrating diversity and teaching children about respect for differences diversity is OK – unless it involves the slightest implication of homosexuality.
Spellings concluded her letter by saying, “Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode.” I can fully understand not wanting to expose your children to controversial themes and lifestyles. There are countless moments of hate, intolerance and violence that I have seen on television that I would never want my children exposed to – however, I doubt I would have much success launching a ban programs such as Sunday morning preachers or the evening news.
What I cannot understand is why these so-called “family” groups spend so much time scanning the airwaves trying desperately to isolate and obliterate anything they disagree with. Perhaps if they spent less time watching for any signs of flamboyant actions from asexual cartoon characters and spent more quality time with their families, it wouldn’t matter what was on television. Even President Bush agrees with me on this point. In an interview on C-SPAN, when asked about the cartoon controversy, he said, “They put an ‘off’ button on the TV for a reason. Turn it off.”
As for Buster, and Spongebob and the rest of the cartoon and puppet world, please know that there are many devoted fans out there who only watch you purely for your entertainment and educational value and are not preoccupied by trying to look into your bedroom windows.
Moni Wood is a continuing education student in English. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
