Posted on 06/02/2016 3:10:58 PM PDT by Kaslin
A gorilla has taken control of your TV set.
What an apt metaphor for the past year. In fact, of course, I refer to the actual gorilla that was (if you take the word of some of the more unhinged commenters on social media) "assassinated" by zoo officials in Cincinnati.
I nearly wrote "who," but that would be to commit the error so many are making in this case -- confusing animals with people.
To recap: A family visited the gorilla exhibit over Memorial Day weekend. A 3-year-old child managed to slip into the gorilla enclosure while his mother was distracted.
Zoo officials explained that under these circumstances, they could not risk attempting to tranquilize the animal, because 1) tranquilizer darts take time to work; 2) the dart could have angered the ape; and 3) it would have taken only a matter of seconds for the gorilla to kill the child.
One criticism of the zoo seems entirely sensible and understandable: Why was the enclosure not childproof? At every zoo I've visited, visitors are kept safely away from dangerous animals. So if the fence wasn't secure enough to prevent a 3-year-old from squeezing through, someone should lose his job. Thank God a tragedy was averted by the quick action of zoo officials, who did the only thing they could do by shooting the gorilla (and good shot, by the way), but it could have been much worse.
But wait. In an avalanche of moral confusion, many people seem to have their heads screwed on wrong. The death of the animal -- a shame, to be sure -- is being called a "tragedy." Oh, yes, the White House spokesman himself said so. A string of silly celebrities wailed that the gorilla had been killed due to poor parenting. Actor Trevor Donovan tweeted, "'17 yr old Harambe the gorilla was shot dead after boy falls into Ohio zoo enclosure' Where were the parents?!"
Donovan must not have children. Those of us who do are aware that as watchful as we are, children can still put themselves in danger sometimes. Where are all these parenting police when parents do truly awful things, like giving their children drugs, or guns, or letting them watch TV 10 hours a day? I have no idea whether Michelle Gregg, the boy's mother, is a good parent or not, but I do know that the fact that he was out of her sight for a few seconds doesn't answer that question.
Actress Kaley Cuoco posted, "Once again, another animal being killed over people not using their brains. If you watch the footage, you see this gorgeous animal holding the child's hand. Do with that what you will." Here's what I do with it: I look at what happened after the first few seconds. Harambe, the 450-pound male gorilla, at first treated the little boy gently, but then, perhaps agitated by the crowd's cries, dragged the child by the ankle through the water and into another section of the exhibit. The boy's head was banging on concrete. It was not a scene from "Curious George."
An online petition calling for "Justice for Harambe" has received 100,000 signatures. CNN informs us that the name Harambe is Swahili for "come together for a common cause." And the Cincinnati police are reportedly investigating the little boy's family. "Cincinnati police said Tuesday that their review will focus on the actions of the boy's parents and family," CNN reported. "It is not related to the operation or safety of the Cincinnati Zoo, authorities said." Well, that's completely backward.
Concern for animal welfare is not decadent. Some serious people argue that zoos and aquariums are inherently cruel, and they deserve a hearing. What's so off about the reactions to this sad tale is the confusion about who has moral standing. "Justice" is not something to which animals are entitled, because animals are not moral agents. Those demanding "justice" for a gorilla are saying something nonsensical. Suppose the gorilla had climbed out of the enclosure and grabbed the boy? Would his advocates demand that he be tried for assault? Of course not. The gorilla cannot be held legally or morally liable for his actions because he is a dumb beast. By the same token, he cannot receive "justice" from anyone. Animals can and should be treated humanely not because they are humane but because we are.
#MonkeyBusinessMatters
Good one.
F Harambe!
If you’re pro-human you are now anti-gorilla. But the pro-gorillas aren’t exactly gorillas themselves.
The media are using the same template on this story, as they did last year when they pushed the Cecil the lion story.
In each case, the media are taking a story and pushing it and promoting it as a major news item. Far beyond its real importance to any of us. And also, push the meme that innocent animals died under cruel circumstances due to malicious behavior by humans.
First school lunches, now TV's...bloody hell!
They would have rather seen a black child die.
Racist much?
He took over the White House eight years ago.
If it had been a white child, which they thought at first, this would be much more of a fire storm. But since that has been defused, they’re looking at other reasons to flail their arms and scream that someone is a racist, or something.
Someone put ‘The King Kong Dirge’ on the phonograph.
Time to put up a glass panel...
Baraq is a fag.
Gorilla just doesn’t apply.
How many thousands of families with children visited this zoo without any kids falling in?
When I saw the idiot protesters with signs saying ‘Justice for Harambe’, all I could think was, ‘Don’t these people have lives?’
Society has been so dumbed-down, and even the notion of relative *value* has been so confused, that a lot of people HAVE no real values.
So, it makes them feel good and validated, to go out and take a stand for Something - any stand, any thing - because humans still instinctively require and search for values.
-JT
There's a knob on my TV that says "Brightness", but it never works.
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