I want Cartoon editing O-W-T, Owt!

Classic cartoons were great to watch when I was a kid. I used to see the old Bugs Bunny cartoons from the 1940s when they took on Hitler and the Japanese, promoting the American way of life.

I was also a huge fan of Tom & Jerry, and enjoyed the cartoons with the African-American maid, Mammy Two Shoes.

When I was young, I never questioned race, I just enjoyed the cartoons, and thought they were funny, and I have grown up with no ill-conceived prejudices about people with ethnic backgrounds different than my own.

Unfortunately, expectations of today's families are apparently on the decline. For the past 10 to 15 years, PC editors have either pulled "questionable" cartoons, or have started editing them the way they feel they should be seen.

Gone are the World War II era Bugs Bunny cartoons -- no longer seen on our nation's airwaves. And, Mammy Two Shoes speech has now been edited, so instead of hearing her tell Tom to get "O-w-t, owt," -- you hear "Now, Thomas, what you just did was not nice, and I am going to put you outside." -- or some load of crap like that.

It has become so bad, that a popular Simpsons episode where Homer visits New York was taken off the syndication circuit for four years following 9-11 because censors thought it would be too hard for people to see Homer relieve himself in a bathroom in the World Trade Center.

How pathetic. I don't know who is behind these PC moves, but they should start giving parents in the US a little credit for raising their kids the right way, and assume that if they let their kids watch these cartoons that they will take the time to explain what they are seeing.

You can still see some of these gems, but you have to buy DVDs to get to them. And, kudos to Whoopi Goldberg, who provides an introduction on the Tom & Jerry series of cartoons. She gives a great explanation of why cartoons need to be displayed in their original form -- to show what our culture used to be like and how far we have come as a country. She tells the story of Lillian Randolph, who voiced Mammy Two Shoes (and also starred in It's a Wonderful Life and a number of other movies), and why her performance should be preserved and cherished. And, she reiterates the importance of parents taking the time to discuss these cartoons with their children.

Cartoon censors don't make the world a better place -- they make classic cartoons suck.