What an awesome perspective, Kimberly. Almost everything you said I’ve been feeling while I’ve been reading all the crap people are posting. As a parent of a 2 year old who I just took to Disneyland, it would be ludicrous for me to profess that I (a father- who- wait for it- has responsibility over his kid too) never once took my eye off my daughter. I feel horrible for everyone involved and completely agree that our society is BENT on assigning blame.

We saw this in our own family in a tragic way. A cousin in my family tragically passed away in his home. He was just under 2 years old, helping his mom fold laundry. He got away for a little bit and somehow found himself falling into the washing machine. It was too late. This was a wonderful mother who loved her son and was a stellar parent. What a tragic accident, like you mention. You would not (or I suppose you would) believe the outpouring of insults that were flung toward the mother for negligence. And all of it during a time that this mother was going through unspeakable mourning because she lost her only son.

I want to hug the parents involved, the zookeepers who had to make this decision, and I feel terrible that a beautiful gorilla had to lose his life. But thank the Lord this kid is still alive.