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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.
Censorship is a bigger danger to the American Public than any FEMA publication.
Bruce Perens.
But given the level of ignorance and PCness in this country, not at all surprising. Games and coloring books are two ways kids learn, remember and process things. I recall growing up with coloring books that depicted, for instance, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Nazis, etc. It didn't turn me into a hateful monster or give me terrible dreams; it helped me learn, remember and understand. I've talked to several friends about this (I have friends across most spectrums you can come up with) and they reached the same conclusion.
We've become absurdly over-sensitive as a nation.
It's like trying to take guns and cannons out of civil war coloring books.
It happened and it's history. People need to know the truth.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
In those coloring book images, you can clearly see that the towers were rigged for demolition! See, I just drew in a team of CIA operatives with a TNT plunger! COVER UP! I call COVER UP!
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
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
Misinterpreted? Children colouring in a terrorist attack... This doesn't worry anyone?
I'm sorry but I think exposing children to this sort of material will desensitise them to such actions if (when) they happen again... Is that what we really want?
And more importantly, is this really news for nerds?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This is just the first government agency publication to be pulled. To come:
FEMA's Katrina Snorkel & Search underwater body hunt field kit
The SEC's Big Book of Why Daddy Contemplates Suicide guide to financial hardship for kids
The FDA's Crush&Snort Mortar and Pestle Set
Look for a complete list to be published by early summer.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I mean, I'm just sayin'...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
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."
This FEMA document was clearly intended as confidential briefing material for President Bush.
I remember when I was between the ages of 6 and 10 I use to draw battles with tanks, jets, and stickmen. I had people falling into volcanoes, getting blown in two by bombs, getting hit by "tracer" round gunfire, etc. Guess what, I'm still pretty normal. I don't have the urge to blow anyone up or shoot anyone.
While I agree it's a bit odd to have the twin towers getting hit by airplanes in a coloring book, I wouldn't have a problem with my kids coloring the picture.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
..to teach kids about bad stuff.
Hansel and Gretel -- your parents can't feed you so they abandon you in the woods to starve to death. Kids had to be exposed to the realities of the world, which despite our attempts to pretend otherwise, were way worse for your typical non-aristocrat in 17th century Europe. Abuse. Abandonment. Starvation. Fairy Tales served as a way to expose kids to what might happen next.
How is that story -- which was a real threat back when famine and starvation weren't just inspirations for pop music sing-alongs -- any worse than a 9/11 coloring book which tries to help kids understand what happened?
We're so fucked when the response is to just shelter kids from everything. Shelter them from nothing. Expose them carefully and they will learn.
This was simply done to balance the karma equation, after terrorizing most of lower Manhattan with a 747 and a fighter jet.
Karma restored. Yay government!
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
...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
What are you talking about? The only vaguely similar thing I could think of is the Iraq War playing cards. (First relevant link I found was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most-wanted_Iraqi_playing_cards)
Nonsense. 9/11 helps whoever is in power by whipping the nation into a patriotic government-worshiping frenzy. Remember all those people who thought that criticizing the president was akin to treason? That's the power of 9/11. Both Democrats and Republicans want that power.
This coloring book was pulled for a completely different reason, namely that people didn't want their tax dollars supporting such a thing.
Disaster books for children should either
1) cover a disaster that the particular child has experienced or heard about, preferably one that their peers have also heard about
2) cover a fictional or very old disaster that none of their friends experienced or heard about
A book about 9/11 was useful in the early 2000s. A book about The Tsunami was useful in the mid-2000s. A book about Katrina would be useful today.
Likewise, children's books about World War II or The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 are useful and timeless.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I notice YOU haven't published the coloring book on YOUR site either, Mr. Perens. Therefore, by your own logic, you are a censor.
Except that is not censorship. Nobody is banning anything. FEMA is choosing not to use our tax dollars to publish a coloring book on their own web site. Calling that censorship dilutes the meaning of the word, and it demeans the struggle against real censorship.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
It's been over 7 years since 9/11, so I'm not sure how relevant painting burning towers now would be for a kid who probably wasn't born yet.
For those who say history shouldn't be covered up, that's true, but this isn't a history book. It's a coloring book aimed toward coping with disaster.
I don't think I've ever agreed with you before, spun!
So that's why they flew air force one over New York City. They were making a live action version of this comic book.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
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.
Which is probably true of the original decks distributed to US soldiers in Iraq. But is definitely not true of the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands more decks sold on ebay and hundreds of websites to those who have zero chance of encountering the people depicted on the cards.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I agree as well, just replace the 9/11 imagery with more generic disasters and it'd be fine.
The only thing that did annoy me was the christian cross on the last page, though at least it was very subtle.
The coloring book was created and posted 3 years ago, meaning during the Bush administration.
Now, would you care to rescind your flamebait?
By your logic, anything the government published at one time but no longer publishes has been 'censored.' Do you really not understand how that dilutes the real meaning of the word 'censorship?'
FEMA was not 'forced' to remove anything. FEMA is a government agency, with limited funds. They put up something they thought would be useful. People did not find it useful, and they asked FEMA not to waste any resources on it. FEMA took it down. The work is still available, if anyone wants it. The government has not banned the coloring book. The government is just not wasting our tax dollars hosting that worthless content anymore.
Calling this censorship is simply hyperbole, and a knee-jerk attempt at whipping up some anti-government, anti-PC hysteria.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Because the people who are asking them to take it down are silly, that's why. Things like coloring or drawing pictures (and talking about the pictures thus drawn) of traumatic events is good therapy. Removing something that supports that is silly.
So yes, the government should be accountable to the people. But they should also know when a few people are being silly and complaining about something that is actually worthwhile.
On the other hand, kids that are of a coloring-book age (like my 5-year-old) at this point probably don't remember September 11, 2001, anyhow.
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
TV news anchor: In another news, due to the lack of any major natural disaster, ... *cough* *cough*, ... hope I'm not catching that little swine flu virus, FEMA moved to create a PR disaster by publishing a 9/11 coloring book for children who get extra off-school days from the flu.
That's so stupid it's passed around to the other side to become genius. I totally want a copy.
What's the spirally thing to the left? A tornado or the Tasmanian Devil?
Umm... it's still torture, even if you can argue that it was defensible.
If I walked into a camp in Pakistan and shot Osama Bin Laden in the head, it would still be murder, or at the very least, assassination (aka, fancy political murder). Whether it was justified or not does not change what the action was.
Now, given that everyone tortured under the Bush regime had *not* been committed of a crime, that multiple serious studies have shown that torturing is not a useful way to acquire reliable information, and that there has been no proof submitted to the public that the torturing was in any way useful... I'd argue the justification of it, too.
FEMA selling the books == indoctrination.
FEMA removing the books == indoctrination.
If selling the books or removing the books both result in indoctrination, does that mean FEMA == indoctrination? :)
It just goes to show you the power of perspective. Mine is that FEMA shouldn't have published the thing in the first place, because it does nothing to actually prepare kids for disaster events (a stated purpose of FEMA). I wouldn't call its publication indoctrination and I wouldn't call its removal censorship: like many others here I see it as FEMA deciding against wasting taxpayer money with this particular method.
Your brain is not a computer.
There are some things children are just NOT ready for, and watching 3000 people get killed is one of them. The best you could do is desensitize them to killing.
Right now, that book would be something helpful, but five years down the road, every cool kid will be laughing at this book and at 9/11. "Something scary happened"... will become a mockery.
This is my sig.
Someone please tell my why the girl is trying to eat a bowl of fruit with a spoon?? To me, this is a better reason why the book should be taken offline.
It will be better to purchase from an owner who is a good farmer and a good builder.
I think our poseur of a president should watch those videos every morning as he eats breakfast. Then maybe he won't be so quick to call waterboarding "torture."
It has nothing to do with them... however evil, horrible, or unlike us they are... or even how much they deserve to have horrible things happen to them.
It's about US, our values, and what we stand for. It's about being willing to say we won't sacrifice our principles just because we're frightened of some bogeyman.
There is always some bogeyman and if you're going to give up your ideals just because you're afraid of the bogeyman-du-jour, then why bother having ideals and simply admit that you're a coward who can't face a dangerous world without giving up your principles.
As for waterboarding being torture, we have actually executed people for doing it. It's hard to really have principles when you're a hypocrite.
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
Having now read the entire coloring book (censorship sucks), I would share it with my young son if a disaster were to touch him. I regard it as an excellent free resource (go Government!).
Bad call, FEMA.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
Yeah, it's only torture when other countries do it. When our country does it, it's a valuable interrogation technique.
But hey, just because torture is generally considered an unreliable method of gaining information, why shouldn't we do it anyway? It proves we're tough, right?
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
+1 Informative
Wish I had points today. Thanks for the link. You're spot on.
And then, please show us, either in the summary, or the linked article, where it says that FEMA removed the coloring book due to pressure or complaints.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
"On the other hand, kids that are of a coloring-book age (like my 5-year-old) at this point probably don't remember September 11, 2001, anyhow."
Such as obvious point and I'd completely missed it. You're very right! What age is this colouring book aimed at? under 10s I guess, who would have been less than toddlers when it happened and so won't have any memory of the event. Very good point my friend.
I completely agree with you - I think colouring books to get kids talking about a traumatic event and enable them to manage their feelings is a really good idea, I am all for it. Look at all the pictures drawn by small children after terrible events (e.g. the Tsunami in Asia a few years ago) and it seems really clear that art is therapeutic and a way to help kids talk about frightening events. But you make the really obvious point that anybody who can remember 9/11 is at least a teenager by now. So maybe other resources would be more helpful to help teenagers overcome bad memories of 9/11.
However if the book is more of a general resource for children dealing with a number of possible traumatic 'environmental' events and the 9/11 pictures are only one of several examples then by all means continue to publish.
Whoah there, Bruce. Please point out where the article claims that FEMA took down the coloring book due to pressure. Actually, the article does not state WHY the book was removed. Unless you have access to information we don't, you are making completely unwarranted assumptions.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The summary doesn't mention that this book has been available since about 2003 and only now is it suddenly a problem.
...okay, so I guess that means that websites like the smoking gun fuel hate?
Not sure how voyeurism and souvenir/collector mentality equates to that. If mugshots and wanted posters are used to help identify fugitives, then TSG is being evil for using them as a marketing tool?
Help me understand what you're trying to say. If it's that you just don't like the cards, cool, I'm fine with that. I'm not a big fan of opportunism either. I just wanted to point out that the use of such cards is not new or (in the case of the people the cards were originally produced for) a tool to foment hate.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
Dunno what TSG is.
My point was simply what I wrote - the original intent was not necessarily to promote mindless hate, but that hasn't stopped thousands of people from doing just that with them.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I am going by the Olmstead quotes in the article. He states that people have been taking the book the wrong way.
Bruce Perens.
Banning knives and boxcutters on planes was probably useful too. Yes, lots of dangerous stuff can still get on, but the restrictions make it harder for a terrorist to threaten the passengers into submission. Closing the "secure" areas of airports to people who don't have tickets was probably a good idea too. Many other countries already did this before 9/11, but it took 9/11 to change the policy here in the US.
because it looked like a 2 year old drew it? I dunno, I read through it, and it was pretty shitty. I can't exactly "draw" per se, but I feel confident that I could re-do that coloring book in about 10 minutes at a much much higher quality.
That said, 9/11 and the Twin Towers could hardly be considered a primary concern of the book. It focused more on burning houses, to be honest. The terrorist attack was simply a "bad thing" among many of the "bad things" that happen. It certainly didn't take them more than 5-10 minutes to produce, and apparently it has been up for a while. Maybe they just figured they'd, you know, include those thousands of kids who lost family members in the WTC terrist attack, plus you know, the millions of kids who saw it over and over again on TV that day.
It wasn't "teaching about terrorists" or any BS like that, it was for helping kids who had been traumetized deal with it. The appropriate response for someone who doesn't feel that is appropriate for their child is to not give it to their child, not get it pulled from the website. At that point you're being childish, and might need to use the coloring book yourself to work through your trauma.
Just a thought.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
It was about a year ago that in an unfortunate event a 5-year old brazilian girl called "Isabella" was thrown off a building to her death. The perpetrator, police found out, was either her biological father or his new wife (perhaps both). Isabella became a national celebrity, and was for months the #1 news story in every media. Of course even a few young kids heard about her.
Why did no one think of doing a "Isabella falling off the building" coloring book? Perhaps a "Isabella being pushed through the window by evil step-mother" coloring book would help the young ones deal with it? Genius!
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
There's lots of dangerous things already on board the airplane.
Banning knives and boxcutters is just security theater. Right up there with the liquids ban.
(And if you don't think the knife and boxcutter ban is security theater, look at the list of very knife like or stabbity stabbity objects that are A-OK to carry on.)
http://blogofbile.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/30/a_scary_thing_happened.pdf
It isn't the government's place to do what?
The next comment had the Smoking Gun link. I think these folk did an excellent job, and I don't see what anyone could have gotten legitimately offended or upset about in this book. It's not gory. They don't have people leaping to their deaths, or being decapitated, or burned alive ("No, Johnny, the flame about his head should have more blue in it").
Not only is torture useless for obtaining evidence, but its also illegal. I believe the Geneva Convention forbids it, and there are other UN anti-torture agreements. I think whoever authorized the use of waterboarding should be prosecuted for war crimes, and I think Obama is gutless for giving them a free pass. As the parent pointed out, war isn't a justification for illegal acts.
Look, just like the real thing there is a face in those flames. ( anyone else remember that picture right after the attack? )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Just leafed through a copy. Quite frankly, there doesn't seem to be much to complain about. It seems a worthwhile effort. Get a copy and judge for yourselves. FEMA: Put it back up. It's fine.
=cjs
Thank God (Judea-Christian of course) the other following titles are still available:
"I'm a Corrupt Politician - Color Me Green!" By Chris Dodd, Barney Frank (extra lollipop pages!), and Harry Reid, sing along pages by Hillary and Nancy!
"I'm Black & Red at the Same Time - I'm Your President"
and
"We're America - We Were Brave and Free"
are still available!
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
So, apparently FEMA removed the coloring book due to complaints. But I suspect that you knew this already, and that I am just feeding a troll.
$META_SIG_JOKE
I can't wait to see the new CDC version of the book with man-bird-pig with a runny nose.
The kids who would remember that are past coloring in a book these days?
And the ones that are weren't born yet, so they have no context of what happened?
In other words, it's served it's purpose for the time and is no longer needed.
WTF? Over?
So the author of the coloring book says, "I stand firm that it was a very well thought-out and useful resource for kids," Olmsted told FOXNews.com. "But itâ(TM)s obviously being misinterpreted by a lot of people."
Obviously, that could be the only reason the book was taken down. Well, the only newsworthy reason anyhow. And no author would make spurious claims in order to get more publicity.
This is a non issue.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
TSG is "The Smoking Gun" (a website that routinely posts mugshots, pictures, and other stuff)
I understand your point, but I'm saying that irrespective of what thousands of people do with them, that's not why they were created. Gun's weren't created for robbery, bone saws weren't created for disposal of murdered mafioso opponents, the identification cards weren't created to promote mindless hate.
You're apparently not saying that you don't like the cards, but that you don't like some *people*, which is understandable. I hate racists and xenophobes, too (and anyone who hates or fears based on lack of knowledge or ignorance). It's not the cards' fault.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
Allow me to present the whole quote, which you conveniently left unattributed:
But a blogger on the conservative Lew Rockwell website says the government is too âoeobsessedâ with 9/11.
âoeIs it that they want to keep the âoefearâ factor ever-present in the sheepleâ(TM)s minds? After people complained, FEMA removed the coloring book from its site. Too bad we canâ(TM)t remove FEMA from our sight.â
Let me be more specific: please show me where the article makes credible claims from reliable sources who do more than speculate.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Yah, like fingers. Sure, it may not slit your throat, but they can still crush a windpipe or pop out an eyeball.... not to mentuion that the appendages they attach to are quite adequet for turning and breaking most any of the joints in other bodies.
And of course... if you can get flour into the air, it can ignite as a fuel/air explosive and blow a plane out of the sky as effectively as semtex (though, gram for gram, the semtex probably wins)
So a couple of people with little sacks of flour in the carry-on and one dude with a match.....
Go ahead, outlaw flour on planes now. Will we start training dogs to sniff for it? buy some expensive new module for the puffer machine? Start swabbing people for flour? Think its hard to get a pack of matches on board?
Seriously.... this security theater is ridiculous. The market for blowing planes out of the sky is severely limited. Its a real bombers market now. All these planes flying every day, and just, nobody out there even trying. Even less that prove to be the least bit competent at it.
I would bet as many plans have failed of this type and just not "gone off" at all than actually worked. Furthermore, I think if every single one succeeded, we still wouldn't have enough incidents to warrent the first bit of the security measures that they have implimented.
Have to be some sort of special brand of cowards to institute all this security over one or two crazies. It makes about as much sense as installing metal detectors and a full time gaurd at the door of an office building because in the 100 years since the building was erected, 1 guy went crazy and shot the place up.
Or the Navy yard here, they have a contract security gaurd there who pulls out a mirror to look under every car that tries to enter.... determined to catch any bomber too lazy to rig a bomb up so it can't be seen with a cursory look from a rent-a-cop with a mirror. Apparently, bombers are too lazy to fill up trunks, or smear grease and dirt all over the outside of their bombs.
Seriously.... how many people rig bombs under cars with flashing lights and big yellow hazard stripes with the word "BOMB" on them? Because, thats all I see these jokers catching. Oh.... but that contractor security gaurd, I am sure he would like to thank you all for your tax dollars, provided to him by the US Navy. (actually, he is a nice guy, but its still ridiculous that they even have him there)
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
It really is an art form. On a casual reading, the article really makes it sound like the book was taken down due to protests, but the only outrage actually mentioned came after the fact, as a reaction to the book's removal.
In fact, the whole article seems like a cleverly crafted troll that implies different, offensive things to different people. It implies the book was removed due to protest. It implies the book was worthy of protest, It implies the book focuses on 9/11. Okay, the article actually calls it 'the 9/11 coloring book,' when it has all of two pages mentioning 9/11 in the context of hearing about any disaster over and over again in the news, which is a totally reasonable thing to prepare child survivors for.
Trolls everywhere could learn a thing or two reading that article. I know I did. :) Man, I just reread it, and it is deliberately inflammatory, which is unlike the CS Monitor. I hadn't noticed quite how inflammatory the article is because it happens to match my personal biases.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The coloring book is the worst idea ever. What next? Coloring books of gas chambers / children dying of starvation / bloated corpses from Katrina / etc? Idiots who came up with this idea are no different from the fanatics they are fighting against.
If my kids want to learn about the !@# that happens in the world, they will read up on history and current affairs when they are old enough to understand.
Trying to brainwash toddlers is sick.