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FEMA Removes 9/11 Coloring Book For Children From Website
FEMA has decided to pull a children's coloring book entitled, "A Scary Thing Happened" from their website. The coloring book contained three images of the twin towers on fire for children to color. Rose Olmsted, the coordinator behind the book said, "I stand firm that it was a very well thought-out and useful resource for kids, but it's obviously being misinterpreted by a lot of people." Since people are so upset about the coloring book, I can only assume FEMA's plan for a human remains concentration game will be put on hold.
Here's a copy of the coloring book: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/pdf/femacoloringbook.pdf
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
Remove all 9/11 images is what the government is saying. Please forget this ever happened.
Because the more fixated you are on the events of 9/11, the less likely you are to vote Democrat. Or so the prevailing sentiment on both sides of the political aisle goes. Republicans trot out the images every opportunity they get when up for election, from dogcatcher through president, and the Democrats feed the Marketing Mindset by running from them like vampires from garlic -- or doing stunts like this.
I think it was Vonnegut who said, "You are what you pretend to be. Be careful of what you pretend to be."
...The individuals on the terrorist training cards are no more random than the airplanes, tanks, and trucks on the NATO/Warsaw Pact training cards.
They're not used to fuel hate, they're used to familiarize soldiers with the appearance of specific human beings so that they don't pass by unnoticed. Kind of like "wanted" posters, but made in a way that they're likely to be looked at more often.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
That may be, but there's still no censorship going on here.
Sorry, Bruce.
The coloring book was created and posted 3 years ago, meaning during the Bush administration.
Now, would you care to rescind your flamebait?
As with most Penny Arcade strips, it's not about the game the strip is specifically referring to, it's about the concepts that are at play in the background... you gotta read between the lines.
The point, if you can't see it, is that the poster goes through the following process:
1. Frames his rejection of an idea.
2. Claims he's not a bigot/hypocrite and/or attempts to validate why he's certified to hold such an opinion.
3. Makes a stupid statement that completely invalidates the main thrust of his position and confirms that he is, in fact, a bigot/hypocrite.
You've missed the point of the coloring book. Read through it. The purpose isn't to teach kids about 9/11, like you seem to assume, it's to help kids get through a traumatic experience. These are kids who had their house burned down or something, and even if they don't understand exactly what happened, they are going to feel the emotional impact of it. The book is just a way to help them deal with it.
Qxe4
For those of you too lazy to go searching for it (I'm rather surprised I'm not in this group this time) here's a copy of the coloring book. I'm sitting at work coloring it right now, yay!
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/pdf/femacoloringbook.pdf
Well, that's funny, because I am a supporter of the current administration, and took time off of work to help Obama be elected.
I am pro-government. I am also pro full-disclosure, transparency, and full discussion. I am not so pro-government that I take everything they do as good, and am very relieved that Obama just hinted he would revisit the state secrets issue. I think government only works when it is of the people, by the people, and for the people.
As you can see from my recent article, I have an interest in emergency preparedness. I looked through the FEMA coloring book and, first, it's not by FEMA. It's by a local emergency preparedness team. Second, it's a really good job. I'd show it to any child. It would help the child understand how to cope with an emergency by being prepared.
So, hyperbole, knee-jerk, and hysteria on you, sir.
Bruce Perens.
Read it and then tell me it's in bad taste. I think they did a really good job.
Bruce Perens.
The Coloring Book.
Bruce Perens.
The booklet was first published in 2003, and most of the disasters depicted are floods, tornadoes or fires, which are still very common and likely to affect some kids in the future.
And having spoken before seeing the link to the coloring book, I see that I'm wrong in part. I assumed due to the summary and the linked article that this was a 9/11 specific coloring book and thus that it was no longer relevant.
Now that I've read it and see it's a general "any disater" book that simply has two pictures that one would assume were the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, I wouldn't have even supported removing it due to it's relevance.
The people putting pressure on FEMA to remove it are idiots, and FEMA is a bit silly for removing it just to please them.
Direct link to the pdf
The best reason to take it down now is that it is irrelevant.
*Cough Splutter*
What? How could you possibly say it's irrelevant?? In October/November last year in California wildfires burned down at least 900 homes! In Australia just a few weeks ago 200 people lost their lives in the Victorian bushfires! Disasters continue to happen all the time.
It seems to me that have absolutely no idea what this coloring book is about. I suggest you go back to the GP and follow the link and actually READ IT like you were invited to. Then you can come back and start throwing your opinions around.
Though I think the book has been published many years too late for it to be of any benefit.
I looked through the book itself, and the twin towers "scene" is just featured as a cover page. The actual colouring book is more generic, about tornadoes, house fires, etc. The first page asks the reader to draw him/herself before it happened, and further on there's an outline of a face where you can draw how you felt afterwards, also explaining that it can happen without warning, the repeated news on TV, feeling ill afterwards, and eventually getting better. I think it's an excellent resource, and pulling it because of the twin towers is just bogus.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
It's not a colouring book about a terrorist attack at all, just FYI. Check it out if you like.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
I'm sorry, this is laziness masquerading as skepticism on your part. A casual review of google search results ("Art Therapy" effectiveness) yielded plenty of references to papers & research discussing the effectiveness of art therapy. There is plenty of research out there, and simply stating "I don't believe it until I see the research," is a nice way of saying "I've never bothered to look."
Art Therapy, Research and Evidence-based Practice by Andrea Gilroy has a whole chapter devoted to "the evidence base for art therapy with children and adolescents," so you might want to start with a copy of that from your local university library if you're interested in the evidence for the efficacy of this therapy.
You could also peruse this excerpt for a discussion of art therapy that seems specific to a discussion of children coping with serious diseases, but talks significantly about the emotional & mental well-being that the art therapy can promote for children subjected to the stress, trauma, and fear of a medical diagnosis like leukemia.
There are many other references available, just a quick google search away - please avail yourselves of them.
I didn't suggest "majority" opinion though, I suggested "a majority of experts' opinions" would be a reasonable criteria for determining if a complaint or objection had merit.
What other reasonable method would you suggest we follow to determine the appropriateness of this sort of material? Most people are not psychology experts, and so do not - in general - have the training & experience necessary to judge whether or not a book like this is a useful tool for child psychologists, and it is not feasible for every single person to become an expert in every field necessary to make sound judgements about these disagreements.
So in practical terms, if there is a dispute over the appropriateness of the material, and on the one side you have a group of laymen who have no particular knowledge of the field, and on the other side, you have a group of people who have spent long years research, training, and work in the field, whose judgement do you trust?