 "Gross" is how CCAN's Lauren Glickman describes a kids coloring book produced by the West Virginia Coal Association and obtained and scanned by the Center for American Progress.
ThinkProgress.com has more:
Friends of Coal (FOC) is a front group created by the West Virginia Coal Association. Its mission is to "inform and educate West Virginia citizens about the coal industry" and "provide a united voice" for the industry. To make dirty coal seem appealing, FOC has sponsored or initiated license plates, football games, basketball practices, plane jumps, fishing events, and scholarships.
The FOC Ladies Auxiliary has been handing the coloring book out to children around West Virginia as part of a "Coal in the Classroom" campaign. Coal officials go into schools and give presentations about the importance of coal. "We'd really like this to be statewide, that it be mandatory in the schools that they learn about coal," said FOC ladies auxiliary president Regina Fairchild in January. The ladies auxiliary is also recruiting members for its "junior" FOC group, open to "girls and boys ages 8 to 16."
Additionally, FOC ladies auxiliary members have visited children in West Virginia hospitals to give them a "special present": Mr. Coal, "a small, black Labrador stuffed puppy meant to bring a smile to kids' faces during hospital stays."
How easy it would be to create our own version of this coloring book - depict mountain top removal, polluted tap water, road dust from coal trucks, kids with inhalers for their asthma, sludge ponds looming in the mountains over elementary schools, poisoned fish, money grubbing politicians, backroom deals, etc., etc. Let's do it! |
