I'm so done...I pray the Lord returns quickly or stops us from acting like the fools we are.
Here we have a mother who is receiving death threats because she loses sight of her child for a moment. Her child falls into a gorilla enclosure. Her 4 year old son is dragged around like a rag doll through the water. Mom starts to panic...As would any of us. People are saying the gentle giant (an over 400 pound silver back gorilla with 10 times the strength of a man) was just trying to protect the child and that they were even holding hands for a brief moment and shared a touching look into each other's eyes and that the child wasn't even scared. Ummm...Ok sure, maybe that happened. Or maybe that's just fantasy we only want to believe happened. That child was terrified, come on, let's be honest here. Maybe the gentle giant didn't want to hurt him, but he was indeed hurting him, and he could have crushed him and killed him in a second, even if it would have been unintentional. The zoo had to make a split second decision...Sit around to see if this ginormous gentle giant would get bored with dragging the 4 year old boy around and let him free or should they save the boy from any further injuries and possibly even death by unfortunately taking the gorilla's life? They were sadly forced to choose the latter.
All these self righteous people out there saying this mom deserves to pay for the death of the gorilla are being ridiculous. If they are not parents, then they should really just stop talking. If they are parents, do they always know where their children are every millisecond of every day? Probably not. Just because their child hasn't fallen into some animal enclosure doesn't make them super parent of the year and entitled to throw stones at this woman. Do I know if this mother was watching her child as she should have been? No, I don't...But how do you all know that she wasn't. And again, stop pointing your high and mighty fingers unless you have super human abilities to always be in the know of where your children are at all times of the day.
Our 5th child was accidentally left at church one Sunday when she was 8 years old. This was the first and only time something like this has ever happened (as of current...haha!). My husband assumed she had gone home with me. She told one of her older siblings that she had to use the bathroom real quick and to tell dad. Well when dad got in the car said sibling forgot to tell dad. My 8 year old was left at church...Sigh. Friends brought her home and we all joked about it...Cause you know? Large families. Was I a bad mom for leaving her after she said that she wanted to ride with dad? Nope. Was dad a bad dad cause he left after getting in the car? Nope. Was older sibling a bad sibling for not remembering to tell dad? Nope, but she did learn an important lesson that day. Was my 8 year old bad for having to go potty? Nope, but she also learned an important lesson that day too. The point is, things like this do happen. Maybe not to this extent, but they happen...to both big families and tiny ones.
Animals losing their lives is very sad...especially in this type of situation. But, this child's life was in danger...maybe unintentionally, but in danger none the less. What has happened to this world where we view the life of an animal more important than the life of a child? Now please don't get all crazy on me and twist my words into something I didn't say. I did not say that animals are worthless, or unimportant. I LOVE me some animals...But, human beings have a distinct place above them. Don't like that? Well I'm sorry, but it's true. Imagine how you would feel if this was your child. Just for a moment, imagine that. Your child walks away from you and falls into a gorilla enclosure. You are now about 15 feet above watching this HUGE animal drag your young child around by his ankles. Are you going to calmly say, "Oh it's ok, this gentle giant is just curious." ? I'm guessing probably not. You'd want someone to do everything they could to save your precious child...even if that meant the gentle giant lost his life. You'd feel regret, but thankfulness at the same time, right? Of course you would, and if you say otherwise, then I beg you to please not have any children. Human beings are going crazy and humanizing our pets. Hey, I'm very guilty of it too. My family literally carries our cat around as if he's a baby...and he's sooo stinkin' spoiled! But I promise you, if he started to hurt my family, I'd have no choice but to put him down...with a heavy and broken heart.
So now we're screaming justice for Harambe the gorilla's death. We want this mom to pay for his life being lost and for being an irresponsible negligent mother. Real justice would have been for Harambe to be released into the wild, not held in a "cage" for 17 years. Real justice would have been for those that are screaming for justice for his death, to have been angered about him living without his freedom. Captivity isn't justice for wild animals...It's cruelty. Real justice for Harambe now would be to remember him and his life. He is said to have been very gentle. He lived a long life and was loved by many...including the zoo that had to make the tough decisions of ending his precious life. It's ok to cry about his untimely death, it's tragic and very sad. But let's be careful to not glorify him to the point of human or even god-like status. In a way that almost diminishes what has happened. You take a way the tragedy of what took place. He was a wild animal held in captivity behaving like a wild animal, a child fell into his world, he was curious and became confused and agitated by all the commotion, he reacted as he should, the child's life was in danger (even if unintentional) and unfortunately a decision had to be made. A decision that deeply saddened many...and rightfully so. A terrible accident took place here and hopefully things that went wrong will be corrected so that future accidents don't repeat themselves.
I am hurt with the majority over Harambe's death, but I also praise God for sparing that poor child's life who will probably always remember this terrifying event.
