MetroBlues are editorial cartoons created by a Santa Cruz bus driver named Mark Ban. They were included on the Local 23 website for a time but were pulled down in response to criticism that they portrayed the District and passengers in a negative light. As is typical of editorial cartoons they represent the viewpoint of an individual, not the organization publishing them.

The cartoons still lived here in the archived version of UTU's site until questions were raised about that too (someone had to go digging to even notice.) Not being a particular fan of the cartoons, and to avoid hassle for Steve at work, I too pulled them down. But not without discomfort. The times we live in are scary. And not just because of the threat of terrorism or the failing economy.

Even in so-called liberal Santa Cruz, our rights to free speech are merely an illusion, tolerated when they must be tolerated (sometimes to a ridiculous extent), in order to satisy legal or political needs, but dishonored when it seems expedient to do so — or possible to get away with it. By pulling these cartoons down, I am party to this and I am uncomfortable.

I work in government myself. This isn't the first time that the First Amendment has created conflict within me and controversy in my life. The perceived good of the whole vs the rights of the individual. It's a dilemna and I've struggled with it from both sides. In neither case did the particular subject inspire me to get up on a soapbox and do battle. But little by little, and more recently in our country, in some big ways, our individual rights are being eroded.

Where does it end? When will it matter enough to me to fight the fight? And when it does, will we be able to find solutions that invite discussion and respectful disagreement without resorting to lawsuits on one side and suppression of rights on the other?

Hmmmm... something to ponder in the blackness of the night.

— Laura