Doonesbury was the first serious literature I read, in elementary school, so it took me several years to realize it was serious. Twenty-some years of readership later, with kids of my own in elementary school, I am truly touched by Mr. Trudeau's willingness to take on our culture's founding myth, that "everyone is created equal," using such sympathetic characters as the foils.

From the perspective of a high school teacher, Sam's expectations are bang on typical. Students in my careers classes were surprised they needed to have high marks in science and math (as well as English) to get into university pre-med programs.

It's a very interesting rhetorical device to posit Sam as a high-school junior who was not made cynical by the Everyone is Special slogans in K-6. I'm glad to see GBT is "old school" about the self-esteem canard. It would have been a shame to put a thoroughbred race horse on the milk run (Alex at a community college). It's possibly worse to put a milk horse on the race track.

Per the comment below: "...Boopsie is still wide-eyed." That's because Boopsie is the last innocent.

Wow. GBT has his finger on the pulse at the White House! FLOTUS and POTUS are speaking on the subject of college even as I type. But I worry that without a major change in business mentality, there just won't be enough jobs...

Children grow older like puppies; for every seven years they age, the surrounding adults only age one year. So while Sam has aged 17 years, B.D. and company have only aged two-and-a-half years.

All this maturation, and yet Boopsie is still wide-eyed.

Oh boy -- Boopsie and the menopause; there's a treat coming round the mountain. Oh yes, I think B.D. will know more quickly than he realised his little girl has grown up.

I fully understand B.D.'s confusion; our younger son is a college freshman this year and I could swear that just last week he was in 3rd grade. And a few days before that I was changing his diapers. His mother is no older than when he was born, and I don't feel any older, so what gives?

I remember when Sam's eyes changed -- and it happened in the blink of an eye. It's a helpful reminder of how quickly children grow and change, at least to the adults watching. I'll probably be just as surprised when my daughter reaches that age.

I'm as bad as B.D. I wonder when Sam's eyes changed? Ahh, the years they do slide by...

"The Intelligent Plant," Michael Pollan's recent New Yorker piece, suggests that Zonker is on to something. His stoner's time sense aided him in communication. Plants, it seems, are working on a different time continuum.

Re: The new Jim Crow laws. The old left vs. right paradigm is dead or nearly dead and is being replaced by a new one. Today you are either with the programme or you are not. Voter ID is all part of the new social order being created today. There are people on the left and the right who oppose it and also those who support it. Left vs. right, like the American Dream, has been done to death by the Third Industrial Revolution and the Rise of the Machines. So specifically blaming the GOP for this state of affairs is misguided.

I just finished reading today's strip. I'm shocked and disappointed that Trudeau didn't include women in his list of groups that the GOP is trying to disenfranchise. Are we still that invisible to even someone as liberal as Trudeau? Is he aware that in Texas they are preventing women from voting with a law that throws into question which name they are registered under? This has caused problems for women because, through marriage, so many change their names. Perry is hoping he can prevent women from voting for Wendy Davis. He will probably get away with it since sex discrimination still takes a backseat to race discrimination, even in Doonesbury.

A big thank you to you Garry Trudeau! I've been reading Doonesbury almost since I learned to read, as it was the only comic strip in The Irish Times. Even though I was too young to get the politics, and hated Mr. Butts, I quite liked Dan Quayle by the time he came along (when I was 8!). I remember Sam and Alex being born, can imagine myself being friends with Alex (who got married just as I was heading on honeymoon), and once brought in a picture of Kim to show my hairdresser what haircut I wanted! As a speech and language therapist, I am particularly delighted to see a character with aphasia in the strip. My husband bought me the wonderful 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective book for Christmas, so I'm going to have even more fun. Keep up the good work!

I clicked the link in the WHATEVER comment. I know that shrug! Only too well. But I'da called it "The New York Commuter Shrug." Methinks a certain sense of resigned powerlessness might be a universal trait.

Is Roland Hedley evolving? Twice now he's asked relevant questions, first about the male sensitivity trainer, then about our troops in Afghanistan. What's happening?

What a wonderful surprise to find "Purple Heart" in the five-years-ago-today Flashback. Favourite. Strip. Ever. And flashforward to Mel today; strong and confident enough to ask the big questions. GT, you are a master.

I have followed Doonesbury from the beginning of the strip, and am a huge and loyal fan. Having worked at a VA SCI Center for 20+ years, just down the hall from a Polytrauma Center, I just want to say that everything you've done on the military culture is fabulous, especially the portrayal of head injury and the  Leo/Toggle character, as well as sexual harassment and the Mel character. Thanks for your amazing insights and truly effective representation of these super important issues!

It was informative and saddening to read Mikey Piro's SANDBOX story of overmedication and dumbing-down by doctors working to treat his PTSD. However, we should try to remember that, for some, cognitive therapy and "living right" are not enough. Some people will need medication. PTSD can do more than cause anxiety, depression and anger. It can also trigger or exacerbate more organic types of mental illness, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. While wise living and therapy help some vets with those illnesses, it's sad but undeniable fact that most people with those conditions will need medication, sometimes more than one, possibly for life.