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Daily must learn from this mistake

I am writing to the Daily to express my absolute repulsion with Jim Lasser's cartoon, which was printed Feb. 12 in The Michigan Daily. In it, Lasser, who is usually talented and witty, depicts the Republican candidates all declaring that they are Ronald Reagan. This is fine, as many running for the GOP nomination would have good reason to compare themselves to America's most beloved president.

However, the problem with Lasser's cartoon lies in his last caricature, one of Ronald Reagan himself declaring that he is Marilyn Monroe. This is a slap in the face to all victims of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's is a debilitating disease of the mind. Science and modern medicine can only identify it -- there is no cure. It is a slow, gradual slope into a void. Victims forget their families, their loved ones and their memories. There is nothing funny, at all, about Alzheimer's.

I can understand making fun of Ronald Reagan. That would be legitimate editorial material -- fair game. But to make fun of a condition that is only diagnosable, and not curable, to make fun of a disease that is as sad and as debilitating as Alzheimer's is -- that is reprehensible.

Shame on the Daily and on Jim Lasser for taunting the victims of Alzheimer's on the editorial page. It is obvious that no one on the Daily staff is a relative of a victim. The only way to apologize for this is to learn from your mistakes. Please be more considerate in the future.

RANDALL JUIP