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How The Arts Brought People Together After 9/11

Londons Times Cartoons founder, Rick London, like many other creative souls such as Elvis, John Grisham, William Faulkner, B.B. King and many others, was born and raised in rural Mississippi. His early formal education surely did not teach him what he knows today. When we met, he was not yet a cartoonist, but a well-known playright and businessman, living inside the beltway, who had founded an interesting bus tour business in in the late 1980's. I was just beginning my writing career at the time, and he was getting major media coverage worldwide so I stood in line for an interview. He made time for me on the same day he made time for "Inside Edition", then hosted by Bill O'Reilly. Rick was and is a gentleman.

Rick is also a writer and we have stayed in touch over the years on and off, and, remained friends as well. By the mid-1990's Rick had sold his business and moved around a bit, and we lost touch, but I rediscovered him a decade later in 2005 on theon the web. It was a mere coincidence that I did find him. I had been writing a story on humorous websites, and found he had a top-ranked cartoon site. I took a look. The rankings made sense. It was and is brilliant.

I emailed Rick. He was living in Hot Springs, Ar. I asked him if I could do an interview and he agreed but was not feeling well and also was busy with his website, and wondered if we could delay it a week or two. That was fine with me.

Suddenly it was as if he had dropped off the planet. I tried several more times and still no answer and finally gave up, figuring he was way too busy to take time with a freelance journalist when he was continuing to get so much media and Internet attention. As it turned out, that was not why he did not respond. On September 10th, he emailed me and asked me to contact him by phone which I did. His voice sounded weak and words a bit slurred. As it turned out, he had just been released from the hospital after suffering a major heart attack. I told him the interview could wait, rest was more important. He felt like he could do the interview if we did it over a period of time in short intervals and I agreed that would not be a problem.

He called me the next day at the end of the morning. He said he was watching the cable tv and felt he might be having a negative side effect from the drugs given to him because he was hallucinating and feeling that planes were crashing into buildings in Washington and New York. Of course, living in Northern Va., right outside of D.C. I knew were right in the middle of 9/11. At first I hesitated to explain to him what I felt was happening, but knowing him, I also figured he would figure it out sooner or later, so I told him America was under attack, but not to worry, it was not happening where he lived. He said that was not the point, that his only family and friends were still in the D.C area and he needed to contact them. I told him I would do that for him, to rest. By the end of the conversation it was clear he was very upset, and I was worried that his heart may fail again. I told him to please not worry, but was crying slightly on the phone and I could tell he was too. We hung up. I called him back several days later and he was more lucid and had been watching the news. Rick, who usually has a strong, firm voice, was shaking, and he was sobbing and said he had to do something, he didn't know what, but as a person working in the arts, he had to make some kind of contribution. He was not sure at the time the chances of his own survival from his health condition, however.

"A fighter" would probably be the best way to describe this creative man. I explained to him there really wasn't much he could do at this point. We went on with a series of intermittent conversations, of which he would occasionally pause, change the subject, and tell me something about "a cat" or it sounded like that. I didn't know what he meant, but I jotted it down on a pad.

A few weeks later, towards the end of the Interview, he sent me an email with the following link. http://www.londonstimes.us/cat/cat.html .While the Interview was in progress, and Rick was at the same time in bed recovering from a massive coronary, he had founded CAT (Cartoonists Against Terrorism).

I was astounded. He had brought together cartoonists from around the world, to contribute cartoons they had published on the topic of September 11, 2001. It was project so large and imaginative in scope, I could hardly believe a man with perfect health and all his cognitive functions could have put it together, much less a 45 year old man who was struggling for his life.

His strategy was to numerous contributions to publish a book that would benefit the widows and families of the firefighters who perished on 9/11. He would do so through the Salvation Army. The problem was the cartoons were 90% in four color, and color is expensive to reproduce, plus, most of the major publishers who could pull it off, were in downtown New York. Many were not even up to full-speed with their presses yet; some were not back to work yet. He tried many other angles but nobody would bite. So he decided simply to leave the CAT site up as a permanent monument, and, that perhaps one day, someone would see it, not in his lifetime, and publish the book to help the descendants of the lost firefighters and police of 9/11.

It did not take long before the firefighters union to notice it and awarded it the prestigious "Hot Site" Award, which remains on the CAT site. In addition, one of the cartoons rendered by Johann Wessels hung in the Museum Of Illustrative Art in New York for three months, and then was donated to a station on Long Island that lost more firefighters that day than any other, percentage wise. It still is showcased on their wall as a memorial. It is simply called "Hoses" and it portrays a red, white, and blue, American flag made of fire hoses. Cartoonists from as far away as Japan to Pakistan and as close as Peoria contributed. It was quite a feat, an incredible project that remains a major icon on the Internet in memory of those we lost on that tragic day, developed by a humble man, Rick London who was fighting for his own life at the time. He still felt there was something he had to do, he told me, to leave the world a better place than the shape it was in now. And though it was only a contribution, it was such a positive one, it should not go unnoticed.

As the site was beginning to gain recognition, Rick was contacted by Arab Times Cartoonist Mahmood Kahlil, who has since passed away, who asked Rick if he could donate cartoons to the site. Rick is Jewish. Mahmood was Muslim. Rick gave it the okay, but many on his cartoon team were not in agreement. Rick's explanation was that even though we may philosophically disagree with the cartoons, it is important to show the world what freedom of speech is all about. The message being sent out was far more important than whether we agreed or disagreed with this cartoonists point of view. In my opinion, that takes a very open and humble mind to transcend what had happened, and Rick did not censor the man because of his religion or creed, during a time when many others were doing so. In fact, the two became friendly, and chatted often, even though their major disagreement, of course, concerned Israel, they both agreed to disagree and ended each conversation with laughter and a joke or two. Rick was visibly upset upon hearing of Mahmood's untimely death at age 44. In memory of the cartoonist, Rick has left his cartoons on the website, though in total disagreement with their philosophy. Not many would allow such. Rick did.

I surf to both websites regularly now. Though the CAT site is no longer updated, Rick's main cartoon site is. I am often asked my favorite cartoon ever. I love the Far Side, but it is now retired, so it has to be Londons Times. The site has about 8000 or more of his original concepts (his creative illustrative team render them) and many of them are classics. I put them in the same league with The Far Side. I have never seen such a large and witty body of work.

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Though the name Rick London is just becoming what might be a "household word" his work is far better known, Londons Times Cartoons By Far My Favorite Cartoon Site is Londons Times Cartoons

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