By Jennifer Cohoon
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 22, 1998

"Hate Bears" cartoon offends student pagans

To the Editor:

I'm proud of the Arizona Daily Wildcat cartoonists, particularly Travis Hoffman and Adam Lerner ["Chromatic Aberration"]. These stunningly untalented artists have managed step from the ranks of the pointless to insensitive and offensive. Bravo!

What's that you ask? Whom have you offended? Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Lerner, you published a cartoon portraying symbols of Nazis and pagans right along side one another, the emblems of the "Hate Bears," apparently some misguided slam against Care Bears. Surely you didn't think we'd let that slam against us slide right by?

So I ask, what do you the two of you know about paganism? Apparently nothing. You grouped together a religion of ecumenicists with closed-minded Nazis. You lumped the self-educated, nature-loving faithful with book-burners. You seem to associate pagans with evil, but what is inherently evil about holding Nature as sacred. What's evil about worshipping a goddess, or even multiple deities? Nothing and you know it.

Some pagans are polytheists and some are not, but we are all pantheists. Do you two know what that means? It means that we believe there is Divinity in everything. In Nature, in everything you see around you, even this newspaper. Perhaps there's even a little in you Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Lerner. Perhaps.

(For those of you who would like to know more about us: http://w3.arizona.edu/~azpagans.)

Jennifer Cohoon
President, Arizona Student Pagans
Pre-Architecture Sophomore