We Killed Harambe
By now everybody has heard the story of Harambe, the 17 year old, 400 lb silverback gorilla who was fatally shot by zookeepers when a 4 year old boy fell into his exhibit in a Cincinnati zoo in May.
The mom of four claims to be taking a picture on her cell phone when the child escaped her supervision and wandered in to gorilla enclosure. People have taken to social media and criticize the boys mother, some have taken to her defense.
But as I really think about the situation I remember my childhood, and the memories of going to zoo with my family. I remember not being able to read the signs at the animal enclosure and my mom telling me stories where giraffes came from, and me¨holding¨ (more like slightly touching a snake). I have A picture (as in 1) of me, my brother and my grandparents sitting on some sort of railing at the Zoo in my hometown of Lafayette, La. Not 1000 plus pictures on my moms iphone, a simple picture I was fortunate enough that my parents had developed and took the time to put in a scrapbook.
This was in the 80s, literally the time when Kodak moments were made. Social media has now made us want to share every tid bit of emotion we have, not focusing on the experience in real time.
This child had the chance for $21, to visit animals only seen in the remotest of areas in Africa. People spend thousands of dollars to see them in the wild, yet this child had the chance to see them up close, and the mom instead of opening this toddlers world explaining to him what he was seeing she was more preoccupied with taking a picture of it so she can show all her insta followers how cool of mom she is by taking her kids to the zoo, because that what you do now a days .Everything is a twitter charade, Instagram is insta fake, what was used to be called ¨keeping up with the Jones´¨ is now simply called Facebook.
Life is not living when you are making manufactured moments through Instagram filters. The moments we really are going to cherish are the ones that can´t be deleted or lost. So yes, we all killed Harambe. We forgot about his wonder, and the sacrifice he made so we can learn about the largest living primates on earth. Seeing him face to face reminding us that living gorillas highly share the same DNA as humans.
So let his death not be in vain, next time you´re taking a million photos in front of the Eiffel Tower or Grand Canyon just take 1 and soak up sun with a view, worth more then pictures can admire. Enjoy and live each moment as it is your last, then post some pics and tell a great story, just let us not forget Harambe´s.
To learn more about Harambe Click here http://gpz.org/remembering-harambe-the-harambe-fund/