On May 18, 2016, a gorilla was shot at the Cincinnati Zoo. A three-year-old boy climbed into the gorilla’s enclosure while his parents were not looking. A male silverback gorilla by the name of Harambe grabbed the boy and dragged him around the enclosure. In concern for the safety of the boy, zoo officials decided to shoot and kill Harambe.
The incident was indeed terrible. The boy should never had been able to get into the enclosure. His parents should have been watching him. The zoo was forced to make a tough decision, which resulted in an innocent gorilla being shot to death. The resulting national outrage was necessary to raise awareness on the issue of safety in zoos across America.
Harambe was killed four months ago, yet people still share memes about Harambe, buy shirts about Harambe, yell “d***s out for Harambe” in public places, play video games featuring Harambe, and a ton of other things that have to do with Harambe. It all seems innocent, fun, and trendy to support Harambe long after the incident took place, but things are getting a little ridiculous.
I wish that my generation paid as much attention to national issues such as racial inequality, LGBT rights, and the election. Unfortunately, despite the importance of these issues, following real issues in our country is not trendy. It requires paying attention to news, questioning the media, questioning our government, and questioning ourselves; all of these are not required of us when we talk about Harambe. Harambe was a much simpler issue.
When an event becomes national news, it is almost expected to see some internet memes on Facebook. However, the Harambe memes never stopped, and even attempted to mock some of the more serious issues I mentioned earlier. One meme featured Harambe and read “gorilla lives matter.” Another meme questioned whether Harambe would have been killed if he were a white gorilla, further poking fun at race issues in the country.
I’m sure some of you are thinking; they are just memes. Get over it, they are just jokes, you’re too sensitive, you should be worshiping Harambe, etcetera. That would be an appropriate criticism of this article if it was the end of May, just after the incident. It is the end of September. We need to stop this Harambe nonsense.
It was terrible. Harambe, I’m sure, was a peaceful gorilla. The Cincinnati Zoo regretted how things went down and asked the public already to stop with the memes. I do not think that is an unreasonable request. The memes are doing absolutely nothing but taking the spotlight away from real issues in the country that matter, as well as reminding the zoo family of their loss.
I think the Harambe story demonstrates our inhibition and inability to discuss real issues. We would rather post about Harambe because he’s not controversial. We would rather wear a Harambe t-shirt over a Black Lives Matter t-shirt because, come on, who is going to argue over a Gorilla?
I am asking everyone who has overdone the Harambe thing to put equal effort into a serious national issue for once. Talk about tough subjects with friends. Discuss things that hurt to talk about. Question what the media and what others are telling you. Think about your own feelings towards everything going on in our country. It is our civic duty to be informed citizens, yet we let small issues like Harambe win our attention over. That is what bureaucrats want! They want our young eyes off the real issues so we don’t see what is going on behind the scenes.
I highly suggest everyone who has not put serious thought into our election to do so now. We have a little over a month before Election Day. Research all the candidates’ issues. Don’t stick to Trump and Clinton, check out some third parties. Think about your values and vote accordingly. Take some of your attention off of Harambe, It’s probably what he, and the zoo, would like from us. Focus on our nation’s future.
On that similar subject, some national polls have listed Harambe as having a similar percentage of the voting population to Jill Stein, the green party candidate. In case you have no idea who Jill is, she supports a very progressive green platform and is all about making our country better for the next generation. She supports moving all energy to renewable sources, chipping away at the large amounts of income inequality in our country, ending racial bias in America, and legalizing marijuana along with ending the War on Drugs and mass incarcerations of black people. Yet, my generation wants to vote for a dead gorilla because Jill Stein is not the cool thing right now.
Sad.
