Sunday night, the local PBS affiliate aired a film on "Independent Lens" called "The Political Dr Seuss" For many (of us) whe grew up with Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat early reader books, it came as a bit of surprise just how politically motivated many of his writings were. Sure, The Lorax is a not so subtle commentary on the evils of clear cutting, polution, commercialism and apathy towards the evirnoment, I had never heard of "The Butter Battle Book", published in 1984 as a statement against Ronanld Regan's foreign poicy and the Cold War.
According to the film, not long before Ted Geisel's death, his biographers asked if there was some sort of statement that he would want to "leave behind", he told them he would think about it...
A week later he wrote back, "The best slogan I can think to leave with [the kids of] U.S.A. would be: 'We can... And we've got to... Do better than this.'" He apparently scratched out the "the kids of" just before sending it.
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