An informed opinion about Harambe the Gorilla, killed at Cinci zoo last week.

[shireen]

5. well said

Many years ago, a friend was watching a kid who was around the same age as the child that fell in the enclosure. She was talking to someone, and the kid, who was standing nearby, suddenly started running along a sidewalk towards an intersection. My friend yelled at the kid to stop, and started running after him. But he had enough of a head start that she could not get to him before he reached the road. I watched in utter terror as he approached the intersection. By some "miracle," her older son happened to be walking by and caught the kid just in time.

That memory has been seared in my brain. It's now become a reflex for me to be hyper-aware of little kids, and it amazes me how many parents are simply not as attentive as they should be. On a couple of occasions, I've caught a little kid that decided to go running off, and there have been other times that I started going after them to help but someone else got to them first. When I drive in residential areas and parking lots, as soon as I see kids near the road, I hit the brakes and make sure the adults have control of the kids before moving forward slowly.

As a society, we all bear some level of responsibility for the safety of children. So, I find it hard to understand why other adults did not notice that the kid was about to get in trouble.

RIP, beautiful silverback.