HOW I BECAME AN ACTIVIST - PART TWO

"My first protest, along with later (and earlier) experiences, pushed me to understand the importance of nature and many unseen follies of mankind." -- Zach Affolter

The experiences I had in middle school were only the beginning. I had been involved with social media campaigns on Facebook since 7th grade, and eventually an invite to a protest made its way into my notifications. Tired of simply fighting behind a keyboard (although online activism has its place), I decided to attend a SeaWorld protest at the beginning of my first year in high school.

On the way to the protest, my heart pounded inside my chest. Buildings flew by on the freeway. I clenched my fists as a SeaWorld billboard came into view. I scowled, rolled my eyes, and turned my back on the advertisement. I will be fooled no longer. I will illuminate this cruelty for the world to see.

The words “SeaWorld Drive” glared in the morning sun as the car veered off the freeway. A towering blue pole grasped the sky in the distance and a nauseous feeling crept over me, as if the weight of the sky was on my shoulders. The car came to a halt in the South Shores boat ramp and I began walking nervously to the intersection of SeaWorld Drive. A red light glared ominously just above the street, commanding the cars to stop. After they stalled obediently, the light changed to green, signaling the cars to speed into the park. 

While this cycle repeated, repeated, and repeated again, I joined the protestors. Right above the entrance sign to SeaWorld I stood with a sign displaying an acronym: "Overt Cetacean Exploitation And Neglect." Cars sped past and people occasionally glanced at my sign. Others shouted obscenities, and one person even chucked a beer can out of his car. It rolled dangerously close to a storm drain across the street and I stared in disbelief. Why are people so hostile when we are peacefully informing the public and standing up for sentient beings who are trapped in a concrete box their whole lives? How would they feel if they were sentenced to jail their entire lives without even committing a crime?

Protestors next to me spoke to people as they drove by, trying to make them understand that keeping cetaceans in captivity is unacceptable. But I still stood silently at the edge of the curb with my sign, too nervous to say anything. I glanced back behind me. Shamu Stadium jutted just above the trees. A new nauseous feeling consumed me. 

 I thought of what the cetaceans inside were going through inside of SeaWorld; how Kasatka, Ulises and Corky felt when they were captured from the wild, how the rest of them never got to taste the ocean, born in an unnatural environment that differs greatly from their home, and how the dolphins swam like robots in that tiny pool. The words finally flew from my mouth as the cars obediently stopped at the red light: "Stop teaching your children that enslaving intelligent, altruistic animals is okay!"

Throughout the remainder of the protest, I continued chanting and even pressed the crosswalk button so people had to obey the red light and be educated on the truth – that the whole world is trapped in a trance, hidden beneath a veil of theme park music, breathtaking tricks, and claims that the animals are happy. Cars lined up all the way to the end of SeaWorld drive as they waited for the signal to enter the park. Today there are a lot fewer.

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My first protest ignited my activist efforts. Throughout the rest of my freshman year, I participated in protests against McDonalds, KFC, the fur and meat industries, the circus, rodeos, and horse racing. This led me to gain a deeper understanding of the ways mankind is harming nature and its inhabitants. Education is the first step towards developing a solution. By exposing myself to different issues and keeping an open mind, I was able to better connect with nature.

I began creating videos that displayed its beauty– the beauty that we need to preserve and protect. For the first two years, each of my videos conveyed a specific realm of the natural world (i.e. the desert, arctic, rainforest, oceans). The video below, “The Mysterious Rainforest,” features features flora and fauna from the Amazon.

My videos shifted from displaying the beauty of nature to educating people about the ways we are harming the world. Sometimes they take on a captive cetacean's perspective so that people can establish an emotional connection and truly understand the suffering cetaceans endure in captivity. The video below about Tilikum, the captured orca featured in Blackfish, displays his depression, frustration, and loneliness. Wouldn't we all be if we were locked up in prison our whole lives for no good reason other than for money and entertainment?

Making these videos and looking at the world through a captive cetacean's eyes also strengthened my connection with nature. But the only way to truly understand nature and its beauty is to see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, touch it, and live it. I go out on bike rides daily through a canyon nearby. There is a creek there and I often write in a small clearing next to it. Hearing the water's whispers always soothes me on a stressful day. Jogging on the beach or playing in the waves washes away outside problems and allows me to return to a calm, composed state.

Being out in nature enriches and heals you. Cetaceans born in captivity or taken from their natural home don't have this option. They are trapped behind concrete walls, left to deal with thousands of ignorant screaming people every day, the emotional trauma of being ripped from their family if they were captured, and the stress associated with decaying social bonds in captivity. There is nowhere to hide, nowhere to heal. They are too far from heaven to be themselves.

My first protest, along with later (and earlier) experiences, pushed me to understand the importance of nature and many unseen follies of mankind.

My next blog is about my experiences and connections with the natural world. Stay tuned...