Our take on the recent Get Fuzzy's.

Disclaimer: We don't condone the use of illegal substances here at Zingerding. Our position is strictly about the publishability of the comic strip.

In the last several posts, Hank posed the question of whether those Get Fuzzy strips are appropriate for the mainstream press. We believe they are. Why? Two reasons.

First, although the humor is centered around marijuana, the strip isn't taking a position on the subject. In fact, the joke itself is that Bucky is completely ignorant of his references to the drug. Rob never makes mention of them as related to drugs. He acts in a neutral, bipartisan way, that they are "misleading" and "could use a little editing."

And editing is what they got when they were banned from newspapers. The second reason we believe they should be published is the right to free speech and equality in the press. Why in a newspaper could there be in-depth articles about the war on drugs detailing the hardship of users and dealers, but not a purposely ambiguous comic strip where the zinger is based on ignorance? Comics come in all kinds. If you want sweet and innocent, read Family Circus. If you want off-beat and sometimes edgy, read Get Fuzzy.

We think cartoonist Darby Conley did a masterful job of handling a subject he knew would be controversial. Controversy is okay. It doesn't need to be banned from the public eye. Controversy sparks thinking and the formation of one's own opinions. That's a good thing.