Thank you, GOODALL

Jane Goodall has opened our minds, hearts, souls and senses to the fact that we share this planet with other living animals, for which we shall all be eternally grateful

- RICK MULLER

In retrospect and to our collective embarrassment, it’s almost impossible to believe we’ve all been so blatantly ignorant.

As one species occupying this singular planet, we humans were almost completely oblivious to the other species occupying our rock — those animals. The human species claims to have the intellect of reason, curiosity, logic, invention and self-preservation, but seemingly lacks that one important component: awareness. Awareness that there was something else in the room.

Until Jane Goodall.

The list of people who have influenced the modern world is very short, but Goodall is on that list. And we all owe her a debt of deepest gratitude for opening our eyes to the fact that animals have an equal place on this planet and should be treated with kindness, dignity, compassion and respect.

Before Goodall entered our collective consciousness, wild animals were to be avoided unless we had captured them and put them in cages or in a circus. Chimps were sort of cute and even funnier little guys if they rode a little tricycle and smoked a cigar. Elephants looked menacing, but when they walked around a circus ring with trunks wrapped around tails, they were rather docile beasts.

We even put wild animals in our cartoons and festooned them with funny voices. Nothing wrong with laughing along with mischievous hippos, crocodiles or a Curious George on a Saturday morning. We made animals into characters.

In actuality during those years, we really knew nothing about the “other” species with which we share Earth, and we didn’t have to. We were in charge here, thank you very much.