Dr. Seuss was a person of his time, as we all are, and I don’t think he was willingly being hateful any more than I would condemn pregnant women pre-1970 who smoked or my parents and others like them who spanked their kids, or doctors in the early 1900s who prescribed morphine and cocaine to people. We’re all the products of our times, and it’s easy to see how those caricatures got into Seuss’ work, since those racist archetypes were typical of most work of that time. The people weren’t as enlightened or socially evolved. And, also, it’s easy to understand how the vast majority of Seuss’ racist caricatures were Asian, as Seuss was in the Army and worked with the military during WW II, when the Japanese were our enemies, and Americans were forcefully propagandized against Asian people.

I’m not saying he was right. I am saying that everyone is a product of their environment and upbringing and they reflect that, particularly in what they believe to be cultural norms. The question, as always, is what happens when those cultural norms change and evolve to be more enlightened. Do you continue to hold tight to archaic belief systems and biases, or do you open your mind and your life to new attitudes and pathways?

The Seuss folks obviously have decided upon the latter, and that’s the right decision. I applaud them for it.

And obviously this is the lesson to be learned here.

We all make mistakes. We have all done things we cringe at in retrospect, or regret.

But all of our decisions and actions have one thing in common — they are the product of who we are and who we were at the time we made them.

Our lives, our perspectives, should be constantly growing and evolving as we encounter new information and outlooks. We should always be striving to be better people, to grow in a way that’s going to create a better path for ourselves and a better example for our children and those around us.

But we’re also limited by our background and our knowledge base and level of understanding at that time, and so we should look at those decisions we’ve made, and we should consider them and learn from them.

That’s the lesson here.

That’s the example the Seuss estate is setting, a new narrative, a new lesson, if you will, from the offspring of a man whose work was all about teaching those new lessons and getting people to think about the world around them and consider different perspectives.

Wherever he is now, Dr. Seuss is undoubtedly proud of his ancestors for that.

Because they’ve learned, they’ve evolved, and in doing so, they’ve made his legacy better and more in line with the overarching themes and subjects of his life’s work.

As for those people who decry this as censorship, you are incorrect. They weren’t censored, they made the decision to alter their own work, which is their right.

As for those who cry about how they shouldn’t be changed, you are wrong. The caricatures were racist and harmful to children of those racial backgrounds, and if you’re as big a fan of Dr. Seuss as you claim to be, you would know that an overarching theme of his work is inclusion, and he wouldn’t want those kids to feel bad or alienated from the bigger messages in his work.

And as for those pundits who continue to push this ridiculous Culture War narrative to keep people angry and divided in order to desperately hold on to your fading audience or to distract people from what’s happening in the corridors of power, you’re all a bunch of ridiculous, histrionic buffoons and I hope your audience wises up and gains some perspective and context.

I would recommend they start by turning off the TV and reading and thinking about what I’ve just written.

And then maybe, actually reading some of Dr. Seuss’ finer works, such as “The Sneetches And Other Stories,” and considering them as well.