(A Short Story: 1st of 8 Installments)

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

This is the first installment of an 8-installment story of how things will end up if we do not STOP killing elephants NOW! As you read this story you will notice that the elephant has attached human names to his friends and relatives. As the writer for the elephant, I chose to give not the traditional circus-sounding or Swahili names to the elephant, but rather various names chosen randomly from various ethnic groups. This is because the African elephant belongs to all of us and none of us at the same time: to the Hmongs of Salem, Oregon; to the garbage pickers of many untold world metropolises, to the cell phone addicts riding on the trains of Tokyo -- to all of us. Its extinction will be its release from the agony it is suffering. It will be our loss as well!

The Last African Elephant page 1 of 8 pages

You are talking apes, and as a result, must attach names to everything. So, in order that you may follow my story, I have given names to those who were dear to me. Keep in mind, however, the fact that none of them had names -- but they were very much alive and very much dear to me! I am trying to put this narrative into a structure you may identify with. After all, if you talking apes can’t identify with something, you destroy it. If you can’t identify with the religion of your fellow apes, you criticize not only the religion, but its believers as well; if you can’t identify with the fact that a river basin thousands of miles away from your home is being methodically destroyed, you allow the destruction to go on; if you don’t see the utility of the African elephant, you allow the slaughter of that species to take place.

This brings me to the reason why I have taken advantage of the fact that one of you has agreed to relate my convoluted story to you. My thesis is that you should identify with my problem because I hurt, I suffer, I grow desperate, I remind you that I want -- or at least wanted -- to live! Can you identify with me? Do you hurt? Do you suffer? Do you grow desperate? Do you want to live? If any of the above apply to you, then read on. If not, then so be it!

Here I am in a zoo! Everybody keeps looking at me as if I were some kind of freak! Why was I born? Just to be looked at by these apes? I refuse to be friendly to them! Yes, I see how my small-eared cousins from the Indian subcontinent bow down to the apes and do stupid things so that the apes can be amused. One day they even had one of the small eared ones wearing a tophat! Perhaps the fact that the small eared elephants can be domesticated somewhat will save them from extinction, but I would rather be extinct than just a pet!

(continued in tomorrow’s installment)

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.