The tragedy of toddlers’ injuries at public parks

Jun 21, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Once again the world was thrown into a mental tail spin via the media, and at the head of it all were toddlers. Yes, toddlers at the age where they are still trying to figure out who and what is all around them. A terrible tragic incident recently unfolded at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. A toddler, merely 2-years old was reportedly at the edge of a when he was snatched and dragged away in the water by an alligator. Let just hold it there for a moment.
Roll backward to last month, when a young boy fell into the gorilla pit at the Cincinatti Zoo, a situation that resulted in the Zoo using lethal force on Harambe the gorilla in order to save the boy’s life, many with lightning rapidity were quick to point digits and call the mother negligent and unfit to be in the role of parent. The majority of these vicious attacks on the mother (and father who incidentally was not at the zoo at the time of his son’s demise) came immediately and with unabated venom and unrelenting invectives once the news broke, and without further details on the incident. She was hung out to dry by social media over what was perceived as her failure to block her son from breaching a 3-foot fence. He then fell about fifteen feet into a shallow moat, only to be then dragged around like a rag doll by Harambe a western lowland gorilla weighing more than 420 pounds. Before I become entrapped in the maelstrom of emotions, permit me to offer my condolences to the Graves family (sadly what an eerie last name) on the loss of their offspring.
My question to readers, who probably have a more sagacious grasp on public thinking, is what underlies the striking difference in response to these two tragedies that involved parent, toddlers and animals at known family friendly venues. The family, whose son met his fate by an alligator at the Disney resort in Orlando, received an outpouring of online and public sympathy.
Where are the outrage and the screaming and hollering over the mother and her parenting skills? Where are the animal lovers? What is of interest is the fact that one gorilla got shot to save the boy in the zoo. Yes, the world was upset with the mother for letting the toddler out of her sight. And now with the boy in Florida 4 Disney area alligators were killed without any positivity as to which of them dragged the toddler to his death and the mother has not been investigated. In fact the world grieves for this mother. Where are the animal lovers?
This behavior runs in stark contrast to some who suggested that the parents should be held criminally responsible, in addition to an online petition seeking “Justice for Harambee” earned more than 100,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.
Does bias have any part to play in these tragic situations? Was the ancient stereotype that certain parents are lazy, uncaring, chronic complainers? The fact that the father wasn’t even at the zoo was by inference more damning proof of parental negligence. There have been several incidents cited in America and even in Britain involving white kids being in dangerous contact with endangered animals, such as the one involving a kid in a gorilla enclosure at a Chicago zoo in 1996. There were no mass calls for the parents to face criminal charges or to have the other kids removed from their care. Let it not be forgotten or overlooked that Disney had posted signs marked “No Swimming”, yet this was ignored by the parents.
Now we have two similar tragedies- Two disturbingly different responses from the public and markedly different coverage. Do not ask why, when the answer is so blatantly evident. Not for one moment do I buy into the premise that this is a case of alligators and gorillas or of good parents with poor parenting skills. These two incidents, the actions of alligators and gorillas merely highlighted the presence of certain attitudes as they continues to exist among us. Currently we live in a society where race and racism, like politics, religion and money are impolite topics better left unexplored. Plainly put with no tongue in cheek we are simply uncomfortable talking about race. Such a fact is not without a price, for due to the discomfort, and the absence of learned skills necessary to engage in deep discussions on the topic, we avoid them like the plague. There are some pills, bitter though they may be, must be swallowed, and some facts, though difficult to take must be faced. Present day America does not have a race problem but a mere race system where the odds are stacked heavily against certain players in the system, who must realize who and what they are up against. In Biblical times a donkey spoke to Balaam, and in this case Harambe and four alligators have spoken via the actions of toddlers. . Who will heed? Remember actions speak louder than words, but there are no magical ones to make racism go away.
Yvonne Sam

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