The BLOG: Voices

It only took a gorilla to show how screwed up our priorities are

A boy brings flowers to put beside a statue of a gorilla outside the shuttered Gorilla World exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Monday, May 30, 2016, in Cincinnati. A gorilla named Harambe was killed by a special zoo response team on Saturday after a 3-year-old boy slipped into an exhibit and it was concluded his life was in danger. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

A boy brings flowers to put beside a statue of a gorilla outside the shuttered Gorilla World exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Monday, May 30, 2016, in Cincinnati.  (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

For those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the past few weeks, you might have missed the most important story to American culture since, well, apparently ever.

Let me sum it up for you.

A kid got away from his mom at the zoo. Bad mom.

Jumped into a gorilla habitat. Bad kid.

Gorilla pulled the kid around through the water then shared a heartwarming moment holding hands.

Bad gorilla. Good gorilla.

Then the zoo killed the gorilla to protect the kid.

Bad zoo. Good zoo. Depends on who you talk to.

There have been vigils and rallies all over the country for the gorilla. The parents have received death threats. Mania has ensued. Bad parents.

There were also 69 people shot in Chicago over Memorial Day Weekend, in case you missed it. Which you probably did, because the gorilla scored 54 times more media coverage. That, of course, is because people like talking about gorillas and kids more than they like facing facts about how gun control has failed miserably in one of the strictest gun control cities in the country. Bad news.

Oh, and how about Officer Ronald Tarentino Jr.? You might have missed that one. He was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Massachusetts. There’s a wife and three kids who will never kiss dad goodnight again.

But why would we have vigils all over the country for HIM? He’s a cop. Bad cop, right?

It’s sad that a beautiful creature was killed. But how about a little perspective here, America? A man who served his community is dead … and the silence is resounding. A child is alive … and the noise is deafening. But it’s the cries over a dead animal that are drowning out the important conversations … and our priorities.




Kyle S. Reyes is President and CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing. He’s also an acclaimed keynote speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and social media. You can find him on Facebook and LinkedIn. Read his past blogs here.