I generally like Giovanni’s writing, but I think it was a mistake to put elephants in that list. Every other item in the list is a human being, like the victims at VT. Parents and classmates do not want to hear loved ones compared to circus animals.
And I would argue that the killing to close extinction of elephants for ivory, while arguably not necessary and a waste, is not senseless—it is killing an animal for profit just like any other animal used by human beings for food or material. The killing at VT, that was senseless.
It’s a small thing, and the rest is an acceptable expression of grief and confusion. Maybe Giovanni was steeped in elephant and ivory research and that is what was on her mind, but it sticks out like a sore thumb in a list of human victims.
I know it’s not her best, but I’m cutting her a bit of slack because she dashed this off in less than a day and it still had enough of an emotional resonance that the student body reacted very positively to it.