Salem-News.com Benny And Sid articles Page 3

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 17 of the serialized graphic novel The Truant Officer featuring the Mysterious Futoko

Why should we leave criticism of public education to those who despise it and the children whom it serves?

(Your City, USA) - Do not misunderstand the meaning of "school non-attendance." It does not refer to truancy because of laziness or intellectual inability.

We are not delinquents nor are we vandals. The followers of Futoko love learning, believe that learning is the most important human activity.

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 16 of the serialized graphic novel The Truant Officer featuring the Mysterious Futoko

Why is everyone so afraid of Futoko?

(Your City USA) - Futoko is not a gentleman burglar. He is not a Robin Hood nor a Raffles. Futoko owns nothing worth giving anyone, nor is of value himself.

Futoko tells no one what to do nor where to go. Futoko cannot be found in Walmart nor can your doctor prescribe him to remedy your problems.

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 15 of the serialized graphic novel The Truant Officer featuring the Mysterious Futoko

Does it require Futoko's understanding of how everyone must be his own teacher and that learning is as essential as food, clothing and shelter?

(Your City, USA) - No matter what the cause, battles are lost or won according to the skills of the leaders of opposing forces. The winner is lauded and the loser vilified.

But what kind of creatures are we that we cannot act in such a way independent of a charismatic leader who must invoke our better selves to produce the desired effect?

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 14 of the Serialized Graphic Novel The Truant Officer Featuring the Mysterious Futoko

People who are content to watch reality television or expend their emotional energy on movies about vampire boy friends are sated with their ignorance and have no appetite of curiosity.

(Your City, USA) - My name is Futoko. Most people consider me mysterious, but there is no mystery to school refusal. School is everywhere, every day.

The feast of education is reserved for the learning famished. People who are content to watch reality television or expend their emotional energy on movies about vampire boy friends are sated with their ignorance and have no appetite of curiosity.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 13 of the Serialized Graphic Novel The Truant Officer Featuring the Mysterious Futoko

Learning only works when the student is self-motivated and curious.

(Your City, USA) - My name is Futoko. In Japanese it means "School refusal." But I am not ignorant, nor am I anti-intellectual. My followers are desperate to learn--and they do learn.

Sometimes their teachers are books. Sometimes they are videos. Sometimes they are people who simply know something that students wish to learn.

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 12 of the serialized graphic novel The Truant Officer featuring the Mysterious Futoko

(Your City, USA) - There comes a point when the story is no longer yours. The plot moves behind the scenes and while you may puzzle out the sequence of events later, at the time it all happens you are clueless. I may be a truant officer, a hand sanitizer and perhaps even a philanderer, but one thing I'm not is a psychic. from here I must turn the story over to the man whom I call my enemy. And maybe that's a good thing. It's best if both sides of the issue are shown in the clear light of day. Let you, the reader, decide who is in the right and who is a big, fat joke.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 11 of the Serialized Graphic Novel The Truant Officer

We also need people who are ready to blow the whistle when maybe even those with the best intentions cross the line.

(Your City USA) - When a job needs to be done right, you call in a professional.

Sure Some things can be done by temps, but with the essential business of the day you want someone who gives it a little something extra, who gives it 110%, people who puts their hearts and their backs into their work.

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 10 of the Serialized Graphic Novel The Truant Officer

The latest edition of Salem's only original, online cartoon series.

(Your City USA) - Fallen angels. They litter the ground and clog the gutters of every metropolis in the nation and can be found in between the furrows of our farmlands like weeds.

Men and women who everyone thought could be trusted let us down when they were needed most. They might be politicians, judges, police officers, tv repair men or they may even be hand sanitizers and truant officers.

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 9 of the Serialized Graphic Novel The Truant Officer

All it would take is to find your way to the wrong part of town, meet the wrong person, yield to the wrong temptation and all the Sunday church-going of a hundred years won't do you a bit of good.

(Your City, USA) - You may be a Pastor and wield the Bible to turn aside Satan when he shows his pointed little head and pitch fork.

But none of it means anything until real temptation comes your way. You're out of town. No one knows you from Adam. All it would take is to find your way to the wrong part of town, meet the wrong person, yield to the wrong temptation and all the sunday church-going of a hundred years won't do you a bit of good.

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 8 of the Serialized Graphic Novel The Truant Officer

The latest edition of Salem's only original, weekly online cartoon strip!

(Your City, USA) - Some guys finesse their way through life. They make the right choices. We can call this luck, but it's more than luck. It's a matter of keeping your eyes and ears open.

It's also a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Then there are guys who never know what to do next. They need someone to write out their next three steps ahead of time. They need someone to watch over them because left on their own they'd drop the ball.