Keller @ Large: Cincinnati Gorilla Incident Exposes Intolerance On All Sides
BOSTON (CBS) – This is the era of instant knee-jerk analysis of news events by everyone within reach of a phone or mousepad.
And we've become used to the sight of everyone with an agenda jumping on a story to grind their axes, without benefit of facts, perspective or even a moment of serious reflection.
Related: Cincinnati Zoo Was In 'No-Win Situation' When Boy Fell Into Gorilla Enclosure
But the fallout from the incident last weekend where a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo was put down to protect a young child who fell into the exhibit stands out as especially disturbing for the sheer intolerance it exposed.
There was outrage over the shooting of the gorilla, mostly from animal lovers who don't like zoos to begin with. Suffice to say that without zoos and the public education they provide, there would be far fewer animal lovers to protest.
But the worst of the backlash was reserved for the mother of the child, who was accused of "negligence," as if no one's toddler ever wandered away before. Online petitions calling for her to be held financially and criminally liable for the gorilla's death have gathered thousands of signatures.
Perhaps the lynch mob forming here is motivated by accumulated distress over bad behavior by unsupervised kids, and if you've ever been in a restaurant where someone is letting their brat run wild, you can sympathize. But this wasn't that.
There have been calls in the past for parents to bear liability if their kids commit crimes, and I can see some situations where that might be appropriate. But this wasn't that either.
This was an accident. It could have happened to anyone. Maybe the mob needs to learn the value of thinking before you vent.
