I learned how to read at an early age reading Tintin’s Les bijoux de la Castafiore. Since I am openly pro-life I can’t quite say that I turned out all right. Maybe this steady diet of Hergé in my formative years is responsible for making me the angry ol’ white male mysoginist I have become. Still, I allow many of the books in my house, including Tintin au Congo, which is making waves this week in Hergé’s homeland.
How timely. My 13-year-old son — who also learned to read using subversive material like Tintin, I’m passing it on — was just mentioning the racist undertones in Tintin au Congo. When asked what he thought about it he shrugged and said: “That’s how they thought at the time, now we know better.” Yes indeed. I asked him: “Do you think we are passed that? What do you think we are doing now that our grandchildren or great-grandchildren will look at with scorn and say: “That’s how they thought at the time. Now we know better…” I think that our treatment of the unborn will shame us. Maybe not in my lifetime, but it will.
The fact is that the human species has a dismal track record when it comes to arbitrarily deciding what is deserving of moral status (or personhood) and what is not. We are on the winning side of this issue.
by 
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