Monkeying Around With Our Priorities | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Politics and Activism

Monkeying Around With Our Priorities

A look into the death of Harambe and how our priorities relate to it.

14
Monkeying Around With Our Priorities
Vox

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you’ve heard about a little boy falling into a gorilla pen and said “innocent, caring, protecting, beautiful, etc.” gorilla being shot dead while the little boy was reunited with his “negligent, uncaring, irresponsible, black etc.” mother. I’m not here to say what happened is okay, so calm down behind those keyboards. However, I’m also not here to pass judgment on the call of a professional to kill the gorilla, nor am I here to pass judgment on a mother. I’m not naïve enough to believe that I’m adequately trained to know what to do regarding a gorilla being faced with a small human child. Although I have two younger cousins who play a major role in my life, and I have experienced firsthand what it’s like for them to be there one second and gone the next, I can’t say I know what it’s like to be the mother of a child. So unless you're an expert on gorillas or a perfect parent, how about you stop passing judgment, too.

I’ve told you what I’m not here to do, so let’s get to the part where I tell you what I am here for. What is wrong with us?! Yes, a gorilla died and that is not OK. Yes, a small child was able to get into a pen with a gorilla and that is not OK. Yes, a mother lost her child for an extended period of time and that is not OK. You know what else is not OK?

About 45.3 million people living in poverty in the U.S. More than 1.1 million American soldiers have been killed in all U.S. wars. Every 107 seconds an American is sexually assaulted, resulting in close to 293,000 reported sexual assaults in a year. This is merely in our own country. Shall I tell you a bit about crises other countries are facing?

The death count in Syria is 450,000 and of those, about 50,000 are children. More than 20 percent of girls in Sierra Leone miss school due to menstruation, and 30 percent in Afghanistan and Nepal miss for that same reason. At least 20.9 million men, women, and children are bought and sold worldwide into sex trafficking, the fastest growing criminal “business” in the world.

Could someone remind me why people are hashtagging “Justice for Harambe” or why 400,000 plus are petitioning that the child’s mother be punished or how the color of her skin somehow relates to what happened? Then on the flipside, thousands of people are making memes about black vs. white gorillas being treated differently, gorillas and police, gorillas running from children, and the list goes on. Which, by the way, African Americans are incarcerated at about 6 times that of Caucasians, so “joking” about race in this situation (or any) really isn’t all that funny. What is responding with more hate going to accomplish?

If we would come together as a people the way we are for this gorilla maybe, just maybe we might solve some substantial problems in the world. Yes, I agree that protecting the lives of animals—especially endangered species is important—but at what cost to the rest of the world? Were we really supposed to potentially let a child die in that situation? To be honest, I’m over here wondering why we still even have zoos, but that’s another topic for another day. What will it take for us all to band together like this and hashtag “Justice for Earth” or petition for the punishment of those who commit severe evils in the world? If a gorilla can die in the place of a child and the world come together like it’s the Second Coming, I’m guessing we can get behind causes affecting us all as a planet of people, plants, and animals.

I understand the outrage over this death. I understand the outrage over this situation being possible in the first place. I’m truly not trying to negate the passionate feelings people have had over this tragedy. A mother lost her child, and that could have easily been a permanent loss of life; instead, a gorilla took the fall for another’s mistake. None of that is OK. None of the other tragedies of the world are OK. However, if we’re going to come together over this death, shouldn’t we be doing the same for other deaths? Shouldn’t we be doing the same for all of the other atrocities occurring? Most importantly, shouldn't we be doing more than merely sitting behind a keyboard raging about it? Let's all get out there and make a change. Hashtagging and judging others won't save us; our actions out in the world will.

One of my favorite quotes comes from my favorite novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, and I think it fits in with this situation beautifully. Charlie, the main character, says, “I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have.” There are millions of reasons to be upset, and we shouldn’t change what we get upset about. Like Charlie says, even when others have it worse, we have what we have. What he doesn’t say, however, is that we also have the ability to prioritize, and maybe we should try it sometime.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
girls with mascot
Personal Photo

College is tough, we all know. Here are 8 gifs you will 99% relate to if you are in college.

Keep Reading...Show less
Student Life

7 Things College Has Taught Me

Other than knowledge and all those important things

380
7 Things College Has Taught Me
We Know Memes

So, college is the place where you're supposed to learn all of these amazing life skills.

Here are the top seven skills I have learned thus far.

Keep Reading...Show less
college

College is some of the greatest years of anyone's life. Its a time to be outrageous, different and free; a time to do everything you were afraid to do. Here are 38 things you will learn during your four (maybe, five or six) years in college!

1. As a freshman, one does get to be called “freshman” by upperclassmen when they walk to parties in a mob of people.

Keep Reading...Show less
Adulting

6 Unrealistic Expectations Society Has For Young Adults

Don't let the thesaurus-inspired vocabularies in our résumés fool you. We're actually just big kids.

3035
boy in adult clothes

Well over four feet tall and 100 pounds in weight, many of us "young adults" of the world still consider ourselves children. Big, working, college-attending, beer-drinking children. We may live on our own, know how to cook noodles, and occasionally use a planner, but don't be fooled; the youthful tendencies that reside within us still make their way into our daily lives. From choosing to stay up until 3:00 a.m. playing video games on a school night to going out in 30 degree weather without a coat, we still make decisions that our parents and grandparents would shake their heads at in disappointment. So why are we expected to know exactly how to be a wise, professional, sensible adult? It's not that we're irresponsible (for the most part, anyway). It's that we are young, inexperienced, and still have the sought-after, enthusiastic mentality that we can do and be whatever we want, which has not yet been tarnished by the reality of the world. These are just a few of the unrealistic expectations that society has for young adults.

Keep Reading...Show less
pizza
Fandango

There are a lot of foods in this world, but there is only one dish that stands above the rest: Pizza. If you're close to me or at least know who I am, then you know that I'm totally obsessed with pizza. It's one of my favorite things to eat and I will NEVER turn down a slice, even if it doesn't have my favorite toppings. There isn't a day that goes by where I'm not thinking about pizza. I even sleep with a pizza pillow every night! There are many reasons why pizza stands above all other foods, and here are just a couple reasons why.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments