Cartoonist offers an apology for his twin towers lampoon

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 14, 2002

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. — Concord Monitor cartoonist Mike Marland apologized Thursday for publishing a drawing of a plane labeled "Bush Budget" crashing into two towers labeled "Social Security."

"It was not my intention to desecrate the memory of those who died that day, nor to add to the anguish and sorrow of their loved ones or the city of New York," Marland wrote on the paper’s opinion page Thursday. "To these people, all I can say is how profoundly sorry I am."

Hundreds of readers and officials criticized the Feb. 8 cartoon, saying it was insensitive to those still suffering from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center.

Marland wrote that he should have listened to his wife: "She was the first to tell me that maybe that Bush-Social Security cartoon wasn’t such a good idea."

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