Madisgram's post about Self-Sabotage:The Enemy Within, here: http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=201628 reminded me of:

"We have met the enemy..."

Probably the most famous Pogo quotation is "We have met the enemy and he is us." Perhaps more than any other words written by Kelly, it perfectly sums up his attitude towards the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human condition.

The quote was a parody of a message sent in 1813 from U.S. NavyCommodoreOliver Hazard Perry to ArmyGeneralWilliam Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie, stating, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." It first appeared in a lengthier form in A Word to the Fore, the foreword of the book The Pogo Papers, first published in 1953. Since the strips reprinted in Papers included the first appearances of Mole and Simple J. Malarkey, beginning Kelly's attacks on McCarthyism, Kelly used the foreword to defend his actions:

“Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle. There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us. Forward!” —Walt Kelly, June 1953

The finalized version of the quotation appeared in a 1970 anti-pollution poster for Earth Day (reproduced in the infobox), and was repeated a year later in the daily strip reprinted here. The slogan also served as the title for the last Pogo collection released before Kelly's death in 1973, and of an environmentally-themed animated short on which Kelly had started work, but which ill health prevented him from finishing. http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Pogo_%28comic_strip%29#.22We_have_met_the_enemy....22

[unaluna]

I LOVE Pogo. I self-sabotaged to Pogo strip collections while flunking out of graduate school in the 70's...

[gma45]

I agree with you Hankster, Pogo was great! Didn't we have fun in the 70's though? I am starting to love the enemy just a bit!

[unaluna]

gma, we are so lucky to have byz to educate us on exactly what kind of fun we were having...!

[gma45]

So true! It is all coming back to me now! Thanks Byzantine.

[Rhiannonsmoon]

Oh Byz! I love you! I sit here in agony, hot knives stabbing through my legs and feet, unable to walk and was feeling oh so sorry for myself a few short days ago.

I have lost all the family I had and I was crying so hard over it...then I realised, as the last one went, so did my anger, fear guilt and inner pain. I was trying so hard to hold onto them because the only one I loved had died, they reminded me of him. But hey! He was my dad so I remind me of him more than any of them do.

I start out now with a partner and no family, very scared, because we are supposed to have family. And I was taken off anti depressents dduring my last hospital stay...hard work...I always know I can come here and find something you have posted that takes me back to what is either going to make me see sense in my saddened thinking, or make me smile and forget just a time what those bastards have done to me lol! Though I must take my fiar share of the responsibility, just not yet, I know its there for me to collect soon.