A FEMA coloring book that depicts scenes of various disasters including the WTC being struck was recently pulled from their Web site. The coloring book, titled "A Scary Thing Happened," can be found here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/...
Story here: http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Recently an associate of mine was asked for her opinion, as a 9/11 victim's family member, of this under-reported coloring book controversy at FEMA.
My first response was that this is a tempest in a teapot. The psychologists who use art to help children cope with disaster know what they're doing. Let's not overreact, people.
But something about that coloring book cover bothered me. And it wasn't because I'm a 9/11 victim's family member who feels some ownership of the image. Quite the contrary. My sister-in-law perished on Flight 93, not at the WTC. In fact, my concern is that there is a little too much personal ownership of evocative 9/11 images.
Take a look at the coloring book cover. The three images are not equal in three important ways.
First, the twin towers image is larger and more prominent than the other two. Why? There is no particular reason for this if FEMA's goal is to use the book for kids affected by ANY likely disaster.
Second, the twin towers image depicts a specific disaster, not a generic one. The tornado and car wreck scenes are not evocative of a specific event.
Third, tornadoes and car wrecks are 100% likely to happen again. The twin towers will NEVER be struck by airplanes again because they no longer exist. The use of this image in this way is thus manipulative and exploitive. But only if by manipulative and exploitive you mean "used for no other reason than to evoke an emotional response".
Consider that kids who were directly affected by the NYC attack are eight years older now; very unlikely to be of an age where they would choose to color pictures with crayons as a coping mechanism. Today children who have a direct recollection of 9/11 of any kind are aged 11+. They are not the target age group for coloring books.
So why put this specific image prominently on the cover of a book directed at young children? To simply depict a "scary thing that happened"?
For kids who would use this book, however, the twin towers being struck by terrorists is a mere icon of fear, not a relevant image to a scary thing that they will ever have to deal with. It resonates with a drumbeat of drama and fear used by the media and right-wing extremists more so than with a scary thing that a child who will use the book has experienced or will ever experience.
The purpose of the coloring book is key. It would have been far better for FEMA to use a generic image of a building on fire - a house or random city building. And leave it at that.
Here in Nebraska I can assure you that the image of a plane hitting the twin towers is a sure-fire way to whip up emotion and ignite irrational fears. I talk every day with adults and children who are driven by this fear. Believe me, it is not a healthy approach.
Back in 2003 I was a girl scout leader whose girls actively discussed where they would hide on their property if Saddam sent a missile to Nebraska. They had no understanding of the multitude of reasons why that couldn't or wouldn't happen, just big fear fueled by "the 9/11 terrorists are going to get us." When I explained to them why they need not fear such a thing (Saddam has no missiles and if he did, they wouldn't be capable of reaching Nebraska), and that Saddam was NOT the cause of 9/11, they were confused and disappointed. People clearly want to believe this simplistic, dramatic and therefore very satisfying scenario.
Sadly, in this part of the country, little has changed in that respect.
Just two days ago I was teaching a local 6th grade class about tolerance. We were discussing religion and nationality. The majority of the class was convinced that being a Muslim and/or being from Iraq is EVIL. When I asked why, they all said, "Because they tried to kill us on 9/11, and they are trying to kill us still!!!"
Why do they think this? Because the news they watch and the family members they live with buy and promote this line (no trouble guessing the TV news channel they watch or the AM radio they hear).
Hard to believe that in 2009 the beliefs that Iraq caused 9/11 and that all Muslims are trying to kill us are still alive among our educated American populace. But I'm here to tell you that it's alive and prevalent in red state America. If any person, no matter how "white" they were, donned Islamic garb and walked down the street in my area, doors would be locked and the police would be called.
I live in the belly of the beast.
Use of an iconic 9/11 image in a history book is one thing. But using an evocative 9/11 image on an elementary-aged child's therapy coloring book in 2009 is not benign. Ironically, it has exactly the opposite of its intended effect. At the very least it suggests an adult mentality that is not willing to let go of the image as the scary thing that happened to them. Perhaps the employees at FEMA need their own art therapy program.
FEMA may legitimately want to address specifically helping children cope with future possible terrorist attacks. If so, they need to consider that such attacks are highly unlikely to come in the same form as they did on 9/11. A burning building or burned-out structure would be sufficient for their purposes and appropriately generic.
One last thing. Those generic images of a tornado-struck house and a wrecked car? I would venture to say that they have little or no emotional impact compared to the 9/11 image. Kids see these images in movies, news and everyday life fairly often. Tornado destruction, at least here in Nebraska, is part of an expected cycle of our year; we call it "tornado season". Car wrecks are everyday occurrences.
If we are to acknowledge to children that terrorist attacks are now part of an expected part of our lives on par with these disasters, then let's ask our government agencies to deal with this sad reality more thoughtfully and appropriately.
FEMA did the right thing in pulling the cover, but we can be sure such inappropriate practices will continue. We need to resist the tendency to make 9/11 imagery the national poster child for "scary things that happen" if we are to contain the hysteria that continues to fuel dangerously irrational responses.