What’s The Matter, Gator Got Your Tongue?

In the past week the city of Orlando has been hit by a trio of unthinkable tragedies of national repute.  First there was the horrific murder of former “The Voice” contestant Christina Grimmie after one of her concerts, followed by the evil, mass-shooting rampage at Pulse night club that resulted in 49 deaths, and then there was the tragic death of a 2-year-old who was killed by an Alligator at a Disney park.  Though they all happened in a short span of time in the same city, each story deserves its own space.  That said, my sincerest condolences to all those suffering loss in each case.

With respect to the latest incident involving the fatal Alligator encounter, I’m wondering where the outrage is?  I’m specifically asking this question because only 3 weeks ago everyone was ‘up in arms’ about the terrible mother who was such a bad parent that she allowed her toddler to get into a Gorilla enclosure at a zoo in Cincinnati.  I mean, seriously, within hours of the news reporting that the Gorilla was killed to save the boy there was an online petition (garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures) to have the mother of the toddler brought up on charges of neglect?  Well, we’ve got a very similar situation here with parents whose child was in an off-limits location long enough to be within the reach of a wild animal.

But where is the outrage?  Where is the online petition to have these parents thrown in jail??  What’s the matter people, gator got your tongue???

Those who would try to draw distinctions between the 2 instances to justify their outrage at the Gorilla incident and their silence at the Alligator incident have not a leg to stand on.  In the Gorilla incident, the mother could not have known that it was possible for her child to get into the enclosure because I think the vast majority of people assume that zoos are designed such that zoo-goers can’t get into the animal enclosures, and the animals can’t get out.  In the gator incident there were at least signs (though terribly insufficient) that indicated no swimming in the water.  If we’re consistent as a society, shouldn’t there be anger at the parents because they let their child get in the water despite the no swimming signs?

As reported here at The Vortex, the loud chorus of people laying blame at the feet of the mother of the toddler who “sneaked” into the Gorilla enclosure were being ridiculous, unfair and absolutely self-righteous.  Parenting is a hard job and NO ONE is immune to losing track of their child at any given time.  It happens to EVERY parent, whether they want to accept that reality or not.  Unfortunately it happened to this family at Disney as well, and sadly they lost their child to the clutches of an Alligator.

There’ll be those who will say they were upset in the Gorilla incident because Harambe the Gorilla was killed by the zoo in order to save the boy.  Well, I know Alligators aren’t as warm and cuddly as Gorillas, but they are beautiful creatures in their own right, and in the aftermath of the toddler being killed by an Alligator, AT LEAST 5 Alligators have been killed at the Disney park in an attempt to identify the single “killer gator” in this case.  Think about that, 5 Alligators have been killed so bite-marks on the toddler’s body can be matched against those gators' teeth.  That means at least 4 Alligators, that were just minding their business and being gators, have been killed as collateral damage in this quest.  How is that any less wrong than the killing of Harambe the Gorilla?

I would reiterate the point that the blame should be directed toward the zoo (in the Gorilla incident) for not making certain that people can’t get into an animal enclosure.  Likewise, Disney clearly needs better signs at its parks.  A “No Swimming” sign is vastly different from a “Danger: Alligators May Be In The Water” sign.  I doubt the parents would have allowed their son into the water had the signage been more complete and obvious.

Children can be lost in numerous ways ranging from kidnappings to drownings despite the vigilance of great parents.  Sometimes tragic, unimaginable things just happen.  This was true in the case involving a little boy with the Gorilla, and this is the case with the little boy and the Alligator.  What bothers me is the shockingly asymmetrical response by the general public.  I would argue that, short of undeniably damning evidence of negligence by the parents, the sympathetic and understanding response by the public toward the family that lost their son to an Alligator is the appropriate response.  I just wish that the family whose son was rescued from the grasp of a Gorilla was afforded the same understanding.

-Maelstrom

NBA Finals Preview

After several weeks of missed calls by the referees, trash talk (rather…trash laughter) from the press conference podium, numerous boring blowouts, and complaints about (unanimous) MVP voting results, we’ve finally arrived at the main event.  The NBA finals are now upon us, and this should be a good one.

From the West we have the defending champion Golden State Warriors featuring the 2-time reigning league MVP Stephen Curry.  Representing the East we have the Cleveland Cavaliers (last year’s runner-up) featuring multi-MVP award winner Lebron James.  Unlike last year’s edition which saw the Warriors victorious in 6 games, this time King James has a full complement of healthy teammates around him, and they’re playing at a high-level at exactly the right time of year.  The Warriors also come into these Finals at full strength.  Ok, certainly Curry has been a little banged up these playoffs and may not be 100%, but the Warriors are about as healthy as you can expect a team to be after coming back from 3-1 down in a series against a very ‘game’ Oklahoma City Thunder team, and that was all after pushing themselves to cap a historic 73-win regular season.  This is The Finals that most of us expected to see, and The Finals that we all deserve.

Before I delve into what I expect out of this series, I must pay my respects to OKC.  The Thunder dispatched the 67-win San Antonio Spurs in 6 games, and then gave the 73-win Warriors all they could handle before finally losing in 7 games.  They did all of this after questions swirled around the team concerning the benefit (if any) of hiring Billy Donovan as coach, whether or not Kevin Durant will bolt after the season, can Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant truly contend for the title as teammates, and whether the Thunder can close-out games late in the 4^th quarter.  After that run, and given that this was only Donovan’s 1^st season as head coach, I think this team should stay together.  Unlike Golden State and Cleveland, I think the Thunder, as presently constituted, can actually get better.  I think GS and the Cavs have pretty much maxed-out with the groups they have, and would need a trade to get better.  The Thunder, they just need more time to make their default basketball DNA more like the team we saw in the last 2 series, and less like the team that consistently blew leads during the regular season.  I hope Durant stays, that their team sticks together, and that they remain healthy next season; if so, they’ll be in the Finals.

Oh, and shout out to the Detroit Pistons who, despite being swept, provided Cleveland with the most resistance during the Cavs run to The Finals (no disrespect Toronto).

This NBA Finals series has huge implications for team and player legacies on both sides.  The Warriors have been dogged all year by suggestions that they only won the title last year because they were healthy and everyone else was hurt.  By coming out and setting the all-time regular season wins mark, they quieted some of those suggestions.  However, had they lost to OKC last round, those same doubts about their 2015 title run would’ve emerged full blast.  Winning back-to-back titles would go a long way toward ending such critiques.  Winning another title will also further add to Stephen Curry’s budding legend as one of the greats of this game…especially if he plays at the MVP level he displayed during the regular season.  In so doing, Curry would also hush the chorus of people that think he only won the MVP because of his boyish, ‘guy-next-door’ looks and not because of his on-court skill, tenacity and prowess.

While Curry and the Warriors are playing to have everyone finally put some respek on their names, Lebron and the Cavaliers have the burden of history to contend with.  The city of Cleveland hasn’t hoisted a trophy in any major sport for generations.  This was the expressed reason why Lebron ditched Miami to return to his boyhood state of Ohio: to finally win one for “the land.”  Additionally, for many people Lebron still needs to win a title without the assistance of Miami’s Dwyane Wade (in the same way Kobe had to win without Shaq) and establish himself as the sole centerpiece of a winning franchise.  This may be his best chance, as he’s now on the backside of his prime as a player.  If Lebron is able to lead the Cleveland Cavs to an NBA title, it would elevate him from his already vaunted stature as an NBA great into a god-like stratosphere…at least in Cleveland. 

I actually think the Cavs stand a better chance of beating GS than they would have against either the Thunder or the Spurs.  That’s because the Thunder could attack using both big and small lineups, and if Lebron is on Durant, who’s gonna defend Westbrook?  The Spurs would’ve presented a problem for Lebron James specifically in the person of Kawhi Leonard.  He has consistently matched or outplayed Lebron ever since he thoroughly outplayed Lebron in the last 3 games of the 2014 NBA Finals (yes LBJ fans, I’ve looked at every stat and every page that dissected that matchup…both pro- and anti-Lebron pages…and they all show that Leonard outplayed Lebron on offense and defense…accept it because it’s true). 

But the Warriors don’t have the versatile bigs of OKC, or a lockdown defender who can stand in front of Lebron and make him work defensively like the Spurs.  And the way the Cavs have begun to shoot the 3-ball might aid them in matching GS offensively, at least for a few games.  Getting consistent offense from Kevin Love, and timely offensive sparks from Channing Frye and J.R. Smith off the bench are key to the Cavs winning.  Their biggest challenge will be playing solid defense, especially in the 4^th quarters against a team that is never out of it until the final buzzer, and resisting the urge to only be a 3-point shooting team.  For the Warriors to win, they’ll have to figure out some way to snatch boards away from the Cavs, especially from Tristan Thompson.  OKC absolutely killed the Warriors on the offensive glass last series, and that was a major factor in each of the Warriors’ losses to them.  Offensively Klay Thompson needs to continue to play as he did in the last series; that opens up numerous other options for the Warriors to attack with.  Defensively Klay Thompson needs to continue to play as he did in the last series; that will set the tone that it’s not open season for the Cavs perimeter guys to just jack up 3’s uncontested.  The biggest challenge for the Warriors will be limiting their turnovers; that has been their Achilles heel all season long.  If they shoot like they shoot, keep turnovers low and match the Cavs in rebounds, they should win this. 

Although my gut tells me that there’s something magical about Lebron winning one for Cleveland, and therefore they just might pull it off, my head keeps telling me Warriors in 6. 

No matter what I think, both teams (and their respective stars) have a lot to play for, so the pressure’s on…

…ball in!

-Maelstrom

PS:  I got the Warriors in 6 with Klay Thompson winning the Finals MVP!

A Child Being A Child, A Gorilla Being A Gorilla and People Being Holier-Than-Thou

This past weekend a little boy got into a Gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, and found himself face-to-face with one of the most magnificent creatures walking the earth.  Unfortunately, in order to retrieve the boy from the grasp of that big, beautiful, magnificent and rare Silverback Gorilla, the Gorilla was killed by the zoo. 

In the aftermath, about 60 seconds of eyewitness footage surfaced showing the Gorilla in contact with the boy.  Part of the footage appears to show the Gorilla posing no particular threat to the boy, but other parts show the Gorilla dragging the boy through the water in the enclosure like a rag-doll.  According to the zoo and other eyewitnesses, the Gorilla, whose name was Harambe, continued dragging the boy through the water, and also dragged the boy up the rock walls of the enclosure, causing the boys head to be repeatedly beaten against the walls.  This went on for about 10 minutes, after which time the zoo killed Harambe in order to save the boy’s life. 

Of course this entire circumstance has gotten ample attention with outrage directed at the boy’s parent(s) and at the zoo.  Before I dissect this occurrence, here’s my take:  Once the boy got into the enclosure, there were 3 possible outcomes with 2 of them ending in either the child and Harambe being killed, or Harambe being killed.  The only option that sees both coming out alive is if Harambe moves away from the child long enough for the child to be safely retrieved.  Overall, I think the zoo has the most to answer for here because the enclosures should be designed in such a way that it is impossible for anyone to get in and impossible for any animals to get out.  And the bigger issue that needs to be addressed is why we still have zoos in the year 2016.  Finally, I love animals, and Harambe was just absolutely beautiful to me; I’m sincerely sad that he was killed. 

Now…for all of you sanctimonious, self-righteous, high-horse riding, Monday morning quarterbacks who pronounce the child’s parent as negligent and the zoo as using unnecessary force, here are my point-by-point problems with you…

1
1. You think the parent(s) should be punished and that they were negligent because they weren’t watching their child???

REALLY???!  Anyone who has children (and who is honest about it) knows that their child has gotten away from them at some point.  If it hasn’t happened yet, it will.  Actually, it probably already has…you were just being such a “terrible parent” that you didn’t even realize your kid was out of your sight long enough for something tragic to have happened.  From kids running into the street and being killed by a car, to children playing in a swimming pool and drowning, to little ones being kidnapped at the park, to kids breaking the ‘child-proof’ seals and eating laundry detergent pellets they think are candy, to toddlers taking a tragic tumble down the stairs after they climbed that protective fence you put up to prevent them from going down the stairs, children (often within reach and under the watch of parents and other adults) sometimes put themselves in harm’s way despite the best efforts of the parents to prevent such circumstances.  In this instance specifically, Kimberley O’Connor – the lady who provided the footage we’ve all now seen – said in multiple interviews that the boy told his mother that he wanted to go in the water in a joking manner.  After being told ‘no,’ his mother and another lady began gathering up their other children (placing them in strollers), and in the few seconds they had their backs turned the little boy got away.  Once on that side of the fence, they tried (unsuccessfully) to get him to come back.  He refused and ultimately fell further into the enclosure. 

The truth is, if your child has ever escaped your gaze, whether at home, school, church, the playground, ANYWHERE, then this could’ve happened to you too!  For those who just thought to themselves, ‘nope, not me,’ YES IT COULD HAVE!!!

2    2. The Gorilla was protecting the child!

REALLY??!!  Ok, for the folks who saw the video clips of Harambe huddling over the boy in the corner, and the clip of Harambe standing the boy up as the child looked into the Gorilla’s face, I’ll give you a pass and encourage you to look at the remaining footage that we have.  For everyone else, I’m curious what your definition of protection is.  My definition does not include violently dragging a child through water like a rag doll (as we see in the rest of the footage), or dragging a child up a concrete wall, causing the child’s head to be repeatedly pounded against the rock (as the zoo said happened during the remaining 9 minutes of the incident that we don’t see on camera).  This is not like the 1996 Brookfield Zoo incident where the female Gorilla clearly coddled the unconscious child that fell into its enclosure; this is the dominant male Silverback in a stressful circumstance.  If a human mother dragged her toddler through water and up a mountain like that, everyone would be calling CPS.  Don’t act like the same behavior from Harambe is protection just because you’re all of a sudden feigning concern over the killing of an endangered animal.  And even if we believe Harambe was protecting the child the same way he might protect a baby Gorilla, the boy is not built like a Gorilla, and thus might suffer injuries in a way that a baby Gorilla would not.  Full grown Gorillas are 10 times stronger than a grown man.  A gentle nudge from Harambe would feel like a violent blow to a grown man.  Even that scenario is a far cry from protection.

3    3. The Zoo could have used tranquilizer darts instead of killing Harambe!

REALLY?!!!  So, you really think that shooting Harambe with tranqs was going to stop him in his tracks?  What better way to further agitate an already agitated Gorilla than to stick him with needles.  News flash, it takes several minutes for tranquilizers to take affect for an animal as large as Harambe.  Shooting him with tranquilizer darts would have potentially put the child in even more danger because it is unlikely that Harambe would have taken being shot with darts well.  If safely retrieving the child from Harambe was the goal, using tranquilizers just wasn’t an option.

4    4. The zoo is lying about Harambe dragging the boy up the rocks to justify killing him!

STOP!!!  The zoo does not want to kill its animals.  Whether you’re cynical about it and think they’re just out for money, or if you believe the caretakers are sincere in their love for animals, neither leads to the conclusion that the zoo would kill Harambe unless they felt it necessary to save the boy.  Most importantly, given what we know of Silverback Gorilla’s in stressful situations, and certainly given the dragging of the boy through the water in the footage, I totally believe the account given by the zoo.  This went on for 10 minutes, which suggests to me that they tried in earnest to somehow peaceably retrieve the boy from Harambe.  Unfortunately this did not happen.

5    5. Those stupid people making all that noise were making the matter worse, why didn’t the zoo remove them?

Ok, I thought the same thing at first, but when I heard that the incident lasted 10 minutes but we only have a few seconds of footage, I concluded that the zoo did remove all the onlookers as soon as they could.  We all know that in this era of social media, everyone has cameras, so if the incident really did take place for 10 minutes and all those people remained there, we’d have plenty more footage to parse.  From what information we have at this present time, it appears that the zoo did remove everyone as soon as they could. 

6. This never happened in all the years the enclosure existed, surely the parents are at fault.

Look, unprecedented things happen all the time; things that could have easily happened before but didn’t.  The fact that it had never happened before probably led to further complacency by the zoo in terms of doing safety updates to the enclosures, thus lending itself to this past weekend's occurrence.  This was just that perfect storm of circumstances that led to a terrible ending.

Basically everyone needs to get off their self-righteous high horse.  This was a terrible tragedy, and there is fault to lie at someone’s feet, but it’s certainly not the fault of the boy’s parents. 

As I mentioned before, the biggest issue is with the zoo, and the organization(s) that do safety checks at this zoo and others.  The fact that a child got in means that it was possible, and it shouldn’t be.  Furthermore it seems the boy got inside the enclosure quickly, meaning it was way too easy to do. 

The zoo has some ‘splainin to do!

Finally, on the heels of the protests that SeaWorld has been hit with concerning keeping Orcas in captivity, and the movement by circuses in the US to phase out the use of Elephants, I think it’s way past time that we reconsider having zoos as a society at all.  I do think there is merit to the concept of preservation of animals, but I’m not convinced zoos are the best forum in which to accomplish this goal. 

I’m glad the boy was saved, but I’m terribly sad that Harambe was killed.

-Maelstrom