Unlike the scribbled message that contains a vulgarity in Sunday's Non Sequitur comic, the publisher of the Butler Eagle wants to be crystal clear: His decision to pull the comic from the Sunday newspaper was not a political one.

“If the same thing had happened when President Obama was in office, I would have taken the exact same position,” said Ron Vodenichar, the Eagle general manager and publisher, who will not permit the comic by Wiley Miller to appear in the newspaper going forward.

Miller, who has made known his negative feelings on President Donald Trump, included the message “We fondly say go ... yourself Trump” in the middle panel of a black-and-white cartoon on Sunday that encouraged readers to color in the bears in the strip.

Vodenichar takes issue with the inclusion of the vulgar word in the comics, which is a section often read by children.

“So get out your crayons, colored pencils and markers and have fun in The Bearissance,” the cartoon said at the top, above a large character Miller refers to as “Leonardo Bear Vinci.”

Miller's decision to include the vulgarity is made worse, Vodenichar said, by the fact that he calls the strip “Wiley Bear's Sunday Coloring Page.”

“He intentionally entices children onto the page to find (the vulgar message),” Vodenichar said. “He laid it out for children to color it.”

Other newspaper publishers have followed the Butler Eagle's lead. The Columbus Dispatch, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the Richmond Times Dispatch have dropped the comic strip immediately.

Vodenichar said his phone did its share of ringing Monday regarding his decision to pull the cartoon.

“We've taken upward of 50 calls from people wanting to express their opinions, and at least 90 percent have been supportive of us taking the stand of dropping the comic strip,” Vodenichar said.

To those online who have said pulling Non Sequitur is an affront to free speech, Vodenichar said the word used by Miller, especially in a cartoon meant to be colored in by children, is outside of the type of language used in the Butler Eagle.

“This is a person paid for a particular service,” Vodenichar said of the cartoonist. “He failed to meet the obligations of that service.”

Miller replied to an Eagle interview request Monday with the email addresses of his representatives at his syndication company, Andrews McMeel Syndication. The company later issued an apology, saying that the vulgar language was missed during the editing process.

“If we had discovered it, we would not have distributed the cartoon without it being removed,” the company said in its statement. “We apologize to Non Sequitur's clients and readers for our oversight.”

Miller also issued a statement Monday about the cartoon controversy, saying that it wasn't until after sharp-eyed readers pointed it out that he remembered penning the vulgarity in the cartoon eight weeks ago.

Miller went on to say in his statement that he remembered being “particularly aggravated that day about something the president had done or said, and so I lashed out in a rather sophomoric manner as instant therapy. It was NOT intended for public consumption, and I meant to white (it) out before submitting it, but forgot to. This coming Saturday marks the 27th anniversary of Non Sequitur, and in all that time I have never done anything like this, nor do I intend to do so in the future.”

The statement doesn't square with one Miller tweeted Sunday afternoon saying “some of my sharp-eyed readers have spotted a little Easter egg” and goading others to find it by linking to the cartoon online. When asked to explain the discrepancy, Miller said through the syndicate spokesman that he knew it was too late to stop the errant distribution.

Many comments on the Eagle's Facebook page Sunday night misconstrued the elimination of Non Sequitur from the Eagle's weekly comic section as a political move.

But the results of a Facebook poll on Monday asking Eagle readers if Miller was wrong to include the scribbled vulgarity in the cartoon showed that as of Monday evening, almost 70 percent of voters say he was.

Glen Downey, founder of Comics in Education, said the Non Sequitur issue has been filling his email queue since Monday morning.

“It's always a delicate balancing act,” Downey said. “Cartoonists and comic artists often have an important dissident voice that political institutions attempt to silence.

“It would seem, in this instance, that there was an expectation on the part of the creator or creative team to have the message discovered just prior to or directly after publication,” Downey said.

He agreed that vulgarity before children is an issue across the board today.

“One should always consider how the language of political discourse impacts children,” Downey said. “This is sound advice for everyone, cartoonists and politicians included.”

Shoppers at Clearview Mall were well aware of the comic and its ouster from the Butler Eagle comics section.

Butler resident Josh Collins said he would not want a foul word to sully a comic spread that a child could read.

“If it's for adults, I don't really care. A child isn't really going to read that, typically. Teenagers are already saying it,” said Collins, a cook at a country club. “Personally, I don't think it's appropriate.”

However, Collins said he will miss the comic.

Butler resident Dave Neely said he had to take a closer look to find the hidden message in the strip which he usually enjoys reading.

“He did go over the line,” said Neely, who is retired. “He made it a point to get people to look.”

Butler resident Joyce Giesler did not see the comic, but the situation caught her attention when she read the news.

“I don't think it's good, We are trying to teach our kids not to swear, and that's someone public,” said Giesler, a retired PNC Bank employee.

The curse word used in any setting is not appropriate, Giesler said.

“I don't even like when comedians use that,” she said. “It's never OK.”

Georgia Smith, a Butler resident, also agreed.

“I don't think it's the proper thing to do,” said Smith, a beautician. “Any young person sees that and we are trying to bring our kids up proper.”

Eagle staff writer Gabriella Canales contributed to this report.