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Questions
1. Tone is the attitude a cartoonist takes towards a subject. Which pair of words best describes the tone of this cartoon?
a) respectful/admiring
b) resigned/defeated
c) light-hearted/humorous
d) disgusted/annoyed
2. What are non-essential vs. essential workers?
3. What two news items did cartoonist Steve Kelley combine to create this cartoon?
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.
Cartoon by Steve Kelley
Answers
1. d) disgusted/annoyed
2. A nonessential employee is someone employed in a job that is not considered by the government as crucial during an emergency like the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
Those considered essential workers by state officials include: doctors, health care workers, grocery store and utility employees, delivery drivers, banking, pharmacies, etc.
3. As the Covid-19 lockdown began (two weeks to “slow the spread”), NY Governor Cuomo, California Gov. Gavin Newsome, and various other governors, mayors and local officials around the country ordered “non-essential” workers to work from home and to remain indoors as much as possible (Gov. Cuomo’s order).
The top political pollsters were way off on their predictions for the outcome of the presidential election: they showed Biden winning big in many states. Some of these were instead very close, or won by Trump.
The cartoonist implies the pollsters are non-essential since they do not provide a necessary service (since their numbers were way off in calling the outcome of the presidential election.
NOTE: On November 2, the day before the election, the highly regarded Quinnipiac University Poll published a report:
“Florida And Ohio: Biden Has The Edge Over Trump, Nationally, Biden Maintains A Strong Lead” and showed the following numbers:
- Quinnipiac poll FLORIDA: Biden 47%, Trump 42%
- Quinnipiac poll OHIO: Biden 47%, Trump 43%
- Quinnipiac poll NATIONAL: Biden 50%, Trump 39%
Instead,
The actual results for FLORIDA: Biden 47.8%, Trump 51.2%
The actual results for OHIO: Biden 45.2%, Trump 53.4%
