Governor-elect Matt Bevin has received his share of criticism from the press, Thursday he drew a line in the sand with the Lexington Herald-Leader’s cartoon mentioning his adopted children. He didn’t offer an apology, but an explanation.
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Bevin adopted four children from Ethiopia.
Pett says the cartoon has nothing to do with racism and is simply pointing out Bevin’s stance on the refugees.
“I would say the way I used those kids in the cartoon basically as props was very similar to the way Governor Bevin used them in his campaign as props”, Pett said.
“I liked the piece and I still like it. The strongest possible way I could think of to denounce the efforts to blame Syrian refugees for these attacks in Paris, which were in fact carried out by kids who were born and raised in Paris”.
Bevin added: “Let me be crystal clear, the tone of racial intolerance being struck by the Herald-Leader has no place in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and will not be tolerated by our administration”.
Joel Pett, the cartoonist, told The State Journal that it’s a no-win situation for a white man to have a rebuttal saying he is not racist but neither was the point of the cartoon’s humor. Sure, and I did so deliberately.
“It was sharp and provocative and I expected a few reaction”.
“As far as I’m concerned, it all goes into creating healthy – I hope – debate and democracy”, she said.
“Unconscionably, they are feeding a fear of foreigners, of Muslims for political purposes”, the editorial said of Bevin and U.S. Sen. President Barack Obama has said he wants to admit 10,000 refugees within a year, after close vetting.
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Gallman said the newspaper was inundated with emails, phone calls and social media posts – many of them critical of the newspaper but a few supportive.
