Saturday, July 08, 2006

Turtlecide

I honestly feel that before you become a parent you should pass a morality test. There are so many out there with young children who are failing to provide them with guidance it makes me ill. This is but one, and a rather outrageous one at that, example of parental stupidity that may one day result in a serial killer in your neighborhood.

Today was a corporate event on Randall's Island where we provided coverage. Randall's Island is actually in the middle of the East River and is the very middle of the Triborough Bridge that connects Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. The "Client" is a powerful corporation who, by my guesstimate, spends anywhere between 5 and 10 million dollars on this event every year for their employees and their guests.

Over the years they have been striving to make it a bit more kid oriented. Traditionally families arrive when gates open at noon, and are out by 6:00pm while the adults and singles from the company party on until 9:00pm. They have a few bars, built a Diner stand, built a beach (yes... they built a beach), treehouses, play areas, tea lounges, and a stage where the entertainment perform on. There are a great number of acts and roaming entertainment as well. Attendance is usually around 10-12 thousand people. Like I had said... big company.

One of the things they did this year was to try and bring more of a "backyard picnic" feel to it like they had in the old days when they held the affair in the backyard of their now "retired" CEO. In doing this they brought in a bunch of different animals. There were monkeys, baby bears, a baby tiger, and a large turtle with a bunch of baby turtles. These animals were in the kids area, where we also had a First Aid tent.

While I was making the rounds and checking on the guys who were stationed at the tents I came across a staff member for the event who was crying and visibly shaken. Now try to remember something, image is EVERYTHING to these people, and in addition to the ban on staff members wearing hats, sunglasses, and using cell phones... well I'm sure crying was on that list but just wasn't mentioned. They are corporate mongers afterall.

So I asked her in my soft voice, "Hey, is everything okay?" while trying to push her towards the back of house.

"Oh yeah," she said, "I am so out of here." Ah... so she was quitting! Glad to see someone not willing to sell their soul for the corporate mongers pleasure unlike my punk ass self.

"But why are you crying?" I asked again. It was curiosity plain and simple. Had someone said something mean to her? Had someone improperly propositioned her? Had someone physically accosted or assaulted her?

She turned to me... puffy eyes... and a dark stain on her shirt and said, "I was working with the turtles. There was one kid, a 4 year old, who ripped the legs off one of the baby turtles, and do you know what the parents did?"

I was in shock. This was not what I expected at all. A 4 year old. A 4 year old who ripped the legs off a baby turtle. I couldn't say anything. My mouth was open but no sound was coming from it.

"They laughed," she told me. "They laughed and thought it was the cutest thing that their child just killed a baby animal." With that she turned away and continued marching out of the party with her tears still flowing. I was so sad, so enraged, and so ashamed at the same time. But I was also proud... proud that she had not sold her soul to the corporate mongers that day as I myself had.

The mere fact that a parent would watch their child to kill a baby animal and NOT discipline or reprimand the child is wrong... no matter who you work for or what you do. At 4 years old if you do something wrong and are punished you know it was wrong. If you do something wrong and are applauded by laughter which represents happiness you think you did well. Those parents should be fixed and their child taken away to a home that will teach him morals. He is a serial killer waiting to happen... and who will be laughing then?

Peace and love you fucktard immoral ambiently stupid parents... peace and love...


Posted by New York City's Watchdog :: 7/08/2006 11:25:00 PM :: Permalink :: 3 Bones Added to the Pile

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