7th Grade: Animals

            Initially after reading Rikki Tikki Tavi, I thought all of the pieces we were reading or watching were going to be sweet, touching, animal tales because Rikki Tikki’s story was so heroic, followed by Binti’s story in “Primal Compassion”. It truly astounds me how motherly Binti seemed to have acted towards the child that fell. I would be interested in seeing the pictures that the grandfather took during the whole thing. Although, I was a little confused to as why the parents just stood there. If it were my kid I would have freaked out trying to get my kid back…which probably would have scared the gorilla and made everything worse. So I’m glad it wasn’t me.

            But I can see the slope we’re getting at here. Start us off all high and happy about how great animals can be and then tear us down about how awful we are to them. Touché, Barbara. Well, actually, “Tango Makes Three” was kind of a random piece in there because it was more about how the children’s book was nearly banned in many places, not so much about the penguins themselves. Although I did find it interesting how the two males, Roy and Silo, cared for the baby penguin. I’ve never really thought about homosexuality in animals. I mean some species only have one gender…what do you call them? I really think that people are too sensitive about things like this. I don’t want my future child watching gay porn, or any porn for that matter, but honestly by that point in technology, if they want to see it, they probably will whether I like it or not.

            Now off the porn subject. Yikes. Oh yeah…this downhill slope of my conscience. First of all, I love cats. Dogs are my favorite, but I do enjoy a good kitty to play with. And I think the Trap-Neuter-Release idea in “Don’t fear the ferals” is a fabulous plan. It seems to save money and then there hopefully wont be so many cats running  amuck and having to be euthanized. It just shows there are better ways out there.

            As for SeaWorld and the “Blackfish” trailer, jiminy Christmas. I’ve never been to SeaWorld myself, or really looked into it much, but I’ve only heard bad things about it. My question is, if it is so well known of what goes on there, why do people keep it in business by going there and supporting what goes on? It’s ridiculous. And based on what little I know about it, it seems pretty obvious that it wasn’t the orca’s fault what happened to the trainer. Wild animals SHOULD NOT BE HELD IN CAPTIVITY. Unless it is briefly for science’s sake, and even then it’s iffy. We have enough entertainment between cell phones, internet, TV, sports, movies, games, etc.; why do we need to entertain ourselves watching wild animals lay around in a confined area? Freaking watch the National Geographic channel or the Discovery channel if you want to see wild animals. At least they will be doing interesting things in those shows.

            “20 Pounds” was interesting to me because I love to go fishing every chance I get. However, I tend to fish well-stocked, non-endangered fishies, so I am hoping that makes it okay. I’m happy to know that this special, large, species, Lahontan Cutthroat trout is still alive and kicking.

            And then there’s “The Scarecrow”...

I don’t know if it was Chipolte’s purpose to make me cry, but it did. Those eyes on the cow as the scarecrow looked in really did it for me. So sad. This video was a good wrap up actually, regardless of its depressing song and mood, because it tore me down making me never want to have dairy again, but then it gave a good solution for the problem at the end, which I loved. “Cultivate a Better World”. And that pretty much sums up the solution for every problem we read about.

As if its that easy.

Grade 9: Man v. Man

            The readings start off with the ultimate man versus man situation: kill or be killed. Most Dangerous Game may seem extremely barbaric and insane, but is it really much different than competitions man participates in today? Sure, football might not be as wild as hunting a man down with a rifle or triggering a spike pit for the other to fall in. But it is man to man (sometimes woman) combat over a pigskin ball and pride. Don’t get me wrong—I do love watching football—but when you compare the articles about football players developing CTE and bad concussions with the Most Dangerous Game, aside from the sole intent to kill, they really aren’t all that different in their goals and definition of success. It is a good thing for men in football to hit (tackle) another man as hard as he can. And even after the game he might brag at a party about how he put another guy in the hospital. He might. There is a chance he wouldn’t and that he feels bad about concussing one of the other team’s players, but how bad can he really feel if next week he plans to play the same game and possibly do the same thing? Probably not that bad. But then I also think there are a difference in players as well. There are likely the players who wish to seek fame and fortune for making it in the big leagues in hopes that one day everyone will be chanting his name. “Rudy”…”Rudy”…”Rudy”. Just kidding. Sort of.

But then there are those players who seek the thrill of the game. Those who feel a rush out of getting a really good tackle. And even those who may feel proud to have put another man in the hospital.

            Now I’m not saying every player is one or the other. Obviously some gray area exists and players can fall anywhere on the scale. But just the fact that there could be men out there in those uniforms who honestly bear much resemblance to General Zaroff, is quite frightening. This makes Bob Costas’ commentary on gun control seem a little more reasonable. But can we justify one bad egg in several dozen or more as a cause for concern? Perhaps.

            Let us look at the racial articles to get a better idea of it. The “When will it end?” article lists murders and even a lynching of black men and black adolescents in our history. Many of which were due to racial indifference, if not all. What do we think about this compared to Most Dangerous Game? At least in the story General Zaroff just wanted decent competition regardless of who they were. These racial stories show that the men doing the killing (likely most were Caucasian) sought only to kill the men because of how they looked. No competition necessary whatsoever. Man versus man? In their eyes it was man versus something less than man. And the “9 rules for the black birdwatcher” shares this idea as the author compares the black bird watcher to black birds. An anomaly. Like Tiger Woods is as a golfer to the black community. Don’t really fit in with anyone at all. The black man, the black bird watcher, the black bird, the black golfer—minority, but still what they are and treated for what they are not.