We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us!

We have met the enemy and they are ours.

—Oliver Hazard Perry, letter to General Harrison after the victory over the British fleet at Lake Erie, 1813.

Many years ago, when I was a very sophisticated, but shy, nineteen year old, I wandered into the public cafeteria at the Notre Dame South Dining Hall. I recall it was about 10:00 o’clock in the morning and I had stayed up late–probably in a residence hall bull session–and had slept through breakfast, so I came over to the cafeteria to get some coffee and a roll.

The cafeteria was a rackety place, with terra cotta floors and brick walls and vaulted plaster ceilings frescoed with pioneer priests greeting Indians. The tables and chairs were heavy oak. It was the kind of place where, if the kitchen helper dropped a tray of silver, the noise would hurt your ears.

But on this morning at this time of day the cafeteria was almost empty. As I walked along looking for a seat, I saw Professor Voegelin sitting at one of the few occupied tables reading a newspaper.  It was a table that sat four and he sat on the inside away from the aisle. He could have been upstairs in the private faculty dining room if he had wished, but he was down here in this huge room.

I don’t know why I did it, but I thought it would be nice to sit at the same table so I walked up and said: “May I sit here, Professor?”

He looked around quickly and then nodded without really looking up from his paper, which he held wide open with both hands. I sat down diagonally from him on the other side of the table and started to drink my coffee.  I certainly was not going to bother this lofty figure; I was determined to keep my mouth shut.

As I sat there, I sort of leaned forward unobtrusively to see what Professor Voegelin was reading. I was so startled by what I saw that I forgot myself and practically shouted: “Why Professor Voegelin, you’re reading the funnies!” Scarcely missing a beat and without looking up, he tapped one of the cartoon panels with his forefinger and said, “Yes, this ‘Pogo’ is very good.”

“Pogo” was the daily cartoon strip drawn by Walt Kelly. I believe Kelly drew and wrote from somewhere in Louisiana. His characters were swamp creatures which might be found not too far from Baton Rouge where Voegelin had spent a large part of his teaching life.

I believe it was Kelly who coined the phrase he put in Pogo’s mouth: “We have met the enemy, and they is us!”

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