I am Elephant. I am Rhinoceros
Written by Rosemary Alles
http://www.march4elphantsandrhinos.org
I am elephant. I am rhinoceros. We are children of the Dark Continent, Africa. Our parents are of this land, as were theirs and theirs. Through the birth
and death of stars and the rise and fall of empires the earth has held us in trust; she has kept her promise to guide us and we have kept ours to guard the
secrets of forests, grasslands and desert, so she may live.
We know of the rise of rivers, swollen from so much rain, they run rapids, breaking their banks and tearing at the roots of acacia, which fall into foaming
waters that roar their way to the deltas and then the sea. We know from our parents’ words when these same rivers run dry; where food can be found in
droughts and where to smell for water ten feet or more beneath the parched skin of earth. We know of ancient pathways that lead to rock and valleys where
water pools into granite basins waiting to be sipped. And we know of nights so dark that that no shadow survives them and of those made bright by the
earth’s daughter, her only satellite our moon, or the tearing of the sky by the milky way, our galaxy and home to three hundred billion stars.
We know of sunrise and sunset, of our fiery star, the sun that draws an arc across the sky, defining day and separating it from night; we know of fathers,
sisters, brothers and mothers; of birth and death and suffering and joy.
Human, your story and ours is very much alike.
I am elephant; you kill ninety-six of us each day for our ivory, for trinkets. I am rhinoceros; you kill two of us each twenty-four hours for our horns;
for snake-oil medicine. It is predicted that we will not survive the next decade. From millions in numbers to hundreds of thousands, to thousands, to
hundreds, to tens; from millions of years to hundreds of thousands, to thousands, to hundreds, to tens; will we too vanish like the early mist that is
vanquished by the glare of the yellow sun?
Human, we are made of the same atoms that abandoned exploding stars so many millions of years ago. We, all of us are one. We, like you want to live.
I am elephant. I am rhinoceros.
Rosemary Alles is a member of the core organizing team for the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos; marching in more than 100 cities on Oct 4 2104.
reposted with permission
#FindYourCity
http://www.marchforelephantsandrhinos.org
San Francisco Website:
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San Francisco Facebook Page:
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San Francisco Twitter Page:
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To Reach the Global Effort:
Global March Website:
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Global March Facebook Page:
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The Gray Papers
“I am Elephant, I am Rhinoceros” was submitted as another installment in a series, ‘The Gray Papers,’ featuring essays, poetry, art, photography, news reports, and calls to action on behalf of elephants and rhinos, but may also include other imperiled African wildlife.
I would like to ask all in the Daily Kos community for their permission to re-post any works that fit this description in the context of “The Gray Papers.” If I do not find you and your work on this subject, please find me! All are welcome. Every day 96 elephants are killed for their ivory and a rhino dies every 9 hours for its horn. Their remaining time alive and in the wild is very short, 10 years or less, if we do not make common cause and a concerted effort to put an end to the market for ivory and horn, and thereby take the profit motive out of poaching.
You do not need to have works featuring elephants or rhinos in hand to submit to help their cause, however. The Global March for Elephants, Rhinos, and Lions will be October 4th in over 100 cities. Please join us in whatever way you can to support their rights not to be slaughtered so cruelly and so uselessly.
Other posts in the series, The Gray Papers:
Zimbabwe Elephant Crisis http://www.dailykos.com/...
Why We March… Against Extinction http://www.dailykos.com/...