My Keiko column
He's gone, get over it.
That's right, Keiko the whale has left the building, never to return to Oregon
again. So why don't I care? Because he's a whale. Get a clue here, you
sobbing marine life lovers. Keiko was just a whale, just one single whale that
we dumped barrel after barrel of money (and fish) into. And is it really going
to make a difference? I mean, seriously. I don't want to sound like a big, bad
anti-environmentalist here, but the orca species can survive without Keiko. Sure
he's cute and very marketable (Keiko root beer, anyone?) but in all honesty, there
are so many better things to spend money on than the rehabilitation of a movie
star whale. Like the homeless guy out there who could be wrapped in this newspaper
to keep warm, or finding a cure for AIDS, or for public schools. If you want to
stick with environmental concerns, how about saving the rain forests? Stopping
poachers from killing endangered species? Preventing pollution?
If I were to pick up a
homeless guy off the streets and set up the "Save Bob" foundation, how much money
would I get? Enough to build him a huge house where he would be tended on hand
and foot and given everything he could ever need? Enough to buy him a car? Or
would the most he got out of the deal be a cup of coffee and a ham sandwich? True,
Bob wouldn't make a good stuffed animal, and setting up an Internet "Bob Cam" probably
wouldn't work, but Bob is a human being, one of our own. Doesn't he deserve at
least a little bit of the support that Keiko, an orca whale is receiving?
Public schools continue
to struggle for funds. Thirteen-year olds are killing their parents and classmates.
Crime and drugs run rampant through large cities (and small ones, too), but up
in Iceland's frozen waters, one little whale doesn't care at all. He's being treated
like a king.
