A Place at the Table

I’ve shared before the description of an editorial cartoon my father kept pinned up in the vestibule of our church that made a deep impression on me I have never forgotten.

- Wright Edelman

It was a black and white drawing by the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Herblock that was originally published in the Washington Post in October 1947. The picture showed a group of well-dressed, happy people sitting at a banquet table overflowing with place settings, goblets, and so much food the table could not hold anymore: a roast, gravy boats, bread and butter, covered dishes, heaping platters of sides. Hovering behind them and filling the rest of the image is a crowd of gaunt, wide-eyed, hungry children dressed in rags. There are too many of these skeletal figures to count; the starving masses go on and on into the distance. Back at the table, one of the dinner guests is speaking cheerfully to his smiling companions. The caption reads: “Shall we say grace?”