I'm sure most of you have heard by now about the gorilla that was shot at the Cincinnati Zoo due to a child climbing into the enclosure. Ever since this tragedy, people have been outraged at the zoo’s decision to shoot and kill Harambe as opposed to tranquilizing him.

I get it, it isn’t fair that the animal had to die because the parents weren’t watching their child and keeping him safe, but at the end of the day the real situation is a human life versus an animal’s life. Even more, Harambe’s death brought up a reality of this world. The reality is more people are concerned about the death of a gorilla than the death of other human beings.

I think that the world has become more and more desensitized to death. Everyone is so quick to make jokes, memes, vines, etc. regarding the death of Harambe. Not that we should be making jokes about the deaths of other human beings, but the pure fact that people are even talking about Harambe more than real life issues that we’re facing in America.

Why are people not quick to respond to more important issues? Why is it when something that can’t truly affect us as people we speak up? The Internet is such a great space for creativity, news, information, learning etc. and yet we use it for the dumbest things.

Instead, we use our time on social media to post about an animal that no longer lives and probably prior to him dying no one cared about or even knew. In reality, if this never happened nobody would have anything to say about the Cincinnati Zoo or Harambe.

Similarly, there are people who die everyday that we don’t know about, but even when big stories make the news when people were clearly mistreated and wrongfully murdered, you don’t see people post anything about how they were “wronged”. Humans have the ability to speak and say what they’re thinking whereas with Harambe, like all animals, we have no idea what they’re going to do.

The zoo aired on the side of caution to save the child’s life. Quite frankly, I think if Harambe would’ve ended up injuring or God forbid killing the little boy, people would be mad at the zoo for not doing anything. Unfortunately, in this world now a days, people are less concerned with the realities and prefer to use their voice for the things that don’t deserve as much attention as they get.

I was initially angry that an animal had to die if the little boy was not perceived to be in danger, but once I took a step back and looked at the situation and have seen and heard countless jokes about Harambe, I now see what really matters to people and how they choose to use their voice. If anything, use your voice to speak on the issues that really matter, and if you can’t do that, then maybe don’t say anything at all. Think before you post, speak, tweet, or whatever it is you do.