Project lets kids fire back — with paper bullets

Tuesday, July 4, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

A local woman who believes she has the solution to curbing violence is raising some eyebrows with a project she calls the Silver Paper Bullet.

The paper bullet is a greeting card that carries the caption "Kids Speaking Out," cartoon-like illustrations of smiling youth, and the slogan "paper bullet" with "bullet" encased in an image of a silver moving bullet.

The plan, created by Eliza Abdul, a local parent and grandmother, is for angry teens to write out their hurt feelings on the card and give it to people who have offended them, instead of acting out their feelings violently.

When troubled or angered, just send a bullet -- a paper bullet, Abdul said.

"That's scary," said Kevin McClure, project director for Z-squared: Zero Weapons, Zero Tolerance, a violence prevention project administered through the school district. "The idea is good but the imagery isn't right."

A local Kinko's has supported the project by donating the card's first 500 printings. Abdul said she will begin promoting the card this week in churches and community centers.

The card will be distributed "everywhere and anywhere that we can," said Joyce Eatman, who is promoting the project with Abdul. The project will be introduced in a way that children will understand its purpose, Eatman said.

"It's our way of saying (to children) 'We understand you have feelings and get angry,' " Eatman said. "A mom seeing that card is going to stop and listen to that kid."

But activists of other local anti-violence groups say the card sends out a troubling and conflicting message.

"I wouldn't want my kids -- or any other children -- receiving a bullet in any way shape or form," said Kerrie Hoopes, a mother of three who organized the local Million Mom March. "She might as well make a card cut out like a target meant for the child receiving the card."

Children are going to get the impression that a bullet is an OK way to relay a message, McClure said.

Sabina Duke, a Boulder City resident who was state coordinator for the Million Mom March in Washington, agrees.

"A bullet is a bullet," Duke said "I appreciate that they want to do something. (But) it's very symbolic of a real bullet. That makes me uncomfortable."

Abdul said she expected this reaction.

"People are supposed to feel uncomfortable," Abdul said. "Here is a person who is angered about something. The bullet is something that says 'I've got a problem but I'm going to handle it intelligently.' It steers kids away from guns.

"Every time I hear about kids being shot up like that, I think 'I got to do something about this,' " Abdul said. "I want kids to be able to have an out, a way to express themselves."

The word "Pow" is printed in the card's upper left hand corner. Silver bullets are vertically aligned on the card's inside. The back of the card reads "Stop the Senseless Killings."

Abdul said she knows impulse killing firsthand. Her husband's 14-year-old daughter had her throat slit in a McDonald's parking lot during an argument over a boy whom a friend was dating, she said. Abdul's brother was stabbed in the heart.

"People don't want to face the real thing," Abdul said. "Children get mad. People get mad. They go to the job site or the school and shoot."

Abdul's 17-year-old granddaughter designed the cards.

"Kids have a lot to say and they keep it in," she said. "Kids need to express themselves. Some kids are so afraid of their parents. They hold things in until they get too much anger, then lash out."

A writer who self-published children's books in Alaska titled "Soddy Bear," and "The Cootie Dragon," Abdul said she's used to controversy over her ideas.

"Soddy Bear" was designed to help children understand the Persian Gulf War. "The Cootie Dragon" was written to raise awareness to HIV and AIDS. The book, geared toward fourth graders and up, features a promiscuous dragon who was involved in sexual orgies and drugs.

"I tackle hard issues," she said.

McClure said Z-squared will not support the paper bullet project, which will prevent it from being used in schools.

"We don't advocate anything that uses the image of weapons of any kind," he said. "Maybe if they called it the paper airplane or something like that. Or if they used a butterfly, rose, a flag -- something nonviolent."

Kristen Peterson

covers community issues for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2317 or by e-mail kristen@lasvegassun.com.