Harambe and Bullying Those of Us Who Care about Harambe

Robert Streithorst 

They say that the word "schadenfreude," the pleasure people get from watching others suffer, is a really good word, because it takes a concept and uses one word to express that concept.

We need that now. We need that one word that takes a whole concept and sums it up in one word.

On May 28, 2016, Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla was shot to death at the Cincinnati Zoo because a three or four year old boy climbed into the enclosure.

Many of us feel sad at the loss of the gorilla. Many of us are upset that a mother would be so careless with a three or four year old child.

We have expressed our sadness at the loss of the gorilla, and our dismay at the mother's parenting.

Some people are angry and disgusted at us for feeling sad and for speaking, and they are now mocking us in the hopes of silencing us.

And those people now have their own little industry going. And we really need a word for what they are doing.

The champion of this crew of bullies is Matt Walsh, a blogger at The Blaze. He insisted that because we care about Harambe's death, babies are being aborted.

Yes. Really. *Really.*

Some more sick, sad people suddenly care about gun violence. "So many dead in Chicago!" Did these people care about gun deaths in Chicago the day before Harambe was shot? No, they did not.

I think these people lack compassion. They don't feel anything and they are troubled that others do feel compassion. I also think they are jealous. They are envious of the affection we feel for Harambe. They feel lonely and they want that affection for themselves. They want to be perceived as superior because they were *not* moved by the gorilla's death. So they are putting down people who actually do feel for animals.

And so they are exploiting gun deaths and abortion and starving children and everything else to try to depict anyone touched by Harambe's death as a jerk.

And we need one word for that. "Asshole" is just too generic.

***

Animals are part of God's creation, and they are important.

Seeing-eye dogs do what people don't do. They guide the blind.

Sniffer dogs do what people can't do -- they find the lost by scent alone. They find bombs. They find criminals.

Support companion animals help people with autism, with handicaps, with mental retardation.

Animals do *what people don't do.*

I LOVE dogs. I tell you -- I LOVE dogs.

I love birds. I LOVE birds.

I get something from dogs and birds *that I have never gotten from people.*

It's great if you receive everything you need from people.

Lots of us don't.

But dogs wag their tails and lick our faces. And birds thrill us with their beauty.

Please don't mock or belittle people who love animals.

WE ARE HUMAN, TOO. And animals give us affection and hope and transcendence and loyalty and reliability that our fellow humans have not.

When I was a lonely kid, bookish, tomboyish, dyslexic, abused, belittled, my dogs Tramp, Artie and Benjie gave me *everything.*

Please don't mock those of us who love animals. Our hearts that love animals are just as human as your hearts. If you mock our hearts for loving animals, you are not mocking animals, you are mocking our human love.

***

My bible doesn't tell me to make fun of or behave as if I am superior to other people's emotions.

Romans 12:15: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."

And when God wants to communicate to us his love for us, he uses a metaphor involving an animal:

Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

Danusha Goska is the author of Save Send Delete