9-11 Coloring Book Causes Controversy

[Feuer Frei!]

Is it an attention-grabbing publicity stunt, or an effort to educate kids about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the decade of fighting that followed?
The publisher of a new children’s coloring book, called “We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids’ Book of Freedom,” says it is the latter. Really Big Coloring Books Inc. publisher Wayne Bell says the book is intended to be educational.
“It’s really designed for older kids, not preschoolers,” said Bell in a phone interview. “It’s designed to be a teaching and learning tool for parents and teachers to use with their children.”
But will military parents, many of whom have endured lives of repeated deployments in the aftermath of Sept. 11, see it that way?

The coloring book includes pages showing the smoking World Trade Center and mourning survivors. Page 19 depicts a Navy SEAL taking aim at Osama bin Laden, who is seen cowering behind a veiled woman as a bullet leaves the barrel of the SEAL’s rifle. Above the drawing is this message: “Children, the truth is, these terrorist acts were done by freedom-hating Islamic Muslim extremists. These crazy people hate the American way of life because we are FREE and our society is FREE.”

SOURCE (http://www.military.com/news/article/911-coloring-book-causes-controversy.html)

[Jimbuna]

My attention was drawn to this comment from the source:


And it also raises the question of whether it's right to make money out of something like 9/11. The tenth anniversary ought to be a time of remembrance, I'd agree with that, but to make a profit from it, well that raises a few questions.

[Feuer Frei!]

That comment is spot on but doesn't go far enough.
It is distasteful and seriously lacking in any respect that is due for the victims and those left behind to mourn them, of ANY tragedy.

[Dowly]

Er... right. :doh:

[Jimbuna]

I agree :yep:

This comment goes a little further:


Yep Bun, there's all kinds of stuff out there, that if you don't want your children to have, well don't buy it for them, or don't let them buy it. It's called "parental responsibility" and "parental control". And as for the "anti-Muslim" thing, well there's plenty of that around that they'll get exposed to anyway. And however you play it, 9/11 wasn't planned and executed by white Baptists from Georgia. It was planned, paid for and executed by Muslims. Yes, perhaps a minority, fundamentalists usually are in the minority, but however you play it, you can't get around that. And I think children can be made to understand in a way that doesn't foment racial or religious hatred. It's all in how you present it, and that's up to the parents.

[mookiemookie]

Parental responsibility is all fine well and good, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it's tasteless and crass to put a product like this on sale.

[AVGWarhawk]

What's the problem? Get me my Crayola deluxe box of crayons.


http://www.usa-printables.com/Events/20th_century/20th_century-pics/1941-ww2-01.gif


http://www.historyonthenet.com/shop/images/Colouring/worldw2.jpg


I think the proceeds of the coloring book should go towards the cost of the monument under construction.

[MothBalls]

It's all about parental responsibility. "Don't buy it" isn't always the answer. Kids can't live in a bubble all their lives. Sometimes it's best to let them know there's crapola for crayola and teach them the lesson of why this is wrong.

My thought, a coloring book is targeted at little kids. Older children, as the author claims to be targeting, don't color in coloring books. It seems more like they are trying to get a message out, a message of hate. That's the lesson to be learned, that hate exists and it's wrong.

[TLAM Strike]

Controversy? But everyone loves coloring pictures of 9/11!
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8939/mural3o.jpg

[AVGWarhawk]

I understand it is a coloring book, etc. But if it were sugar coated with images of some flames and a stick airplane flying in marmalade skies what would the reaction be then? :hmmm:

[papa_smurf]

That comment is spot on but doesn't go far enough.
It is distasteful and seriously lacking in any respect that is due for the victims and those left behind to mourn them, of ANY tragedy.

Indeed, not something you would expect to see.

[Oberon]

I don't know what is more disturbing, the pictures or the writing.

[Dowly]

I don't know what is more disturbing, the pictures or the writing.

Indeed.

Change a few words and the writing could've been straight out of german coloring
book circa 1930s. :doh: