Please Don't Attend the Circus

It's no secret that Appalachian has a PR problem. With everything from diversity issues to less-than-effective counseling programs rearing their ugly heads, one would think that the university might be keen on treading carefully. One would be wrong, though. In a remarkably gauche move, the university has decided to host the Garden Bros. Circus for an afternoon of high-flying animal abuse!

The moral outrage aside for a moment, look at that fucking show time: 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm? What sort of sadomasochism do they think we're engaged in up here on the mountain that they think we would ever want to sit through three full goddamn hours of a fucking circus? I digress, however.

Circuses are, in case you are still living in the 1950's, generally awful. With countless organizations advocating for their abolition, citing the awful abuse undergone by animals, it's a wonder that people still file into giant, humid rooms and subject themselves to the dull and sadistic spectacle that is a circus. Most notorious for its rampant depravity is the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Once mostly known for animal crackers in nifty packaging, they've come to be associated with allegations of horrible abuse of their animals.

Granted, Appalachian has not invited the Ringling Brothers to its campus (though I imagine that might be more of a financial decision than one based in moral outrage). Indeed, it has invited the Garden Bros, an organization that yields very little on Google beyond petitions calling for a boycott of their performance. Admittedly, I know absolutely nothing about this traveling troupe and I am being a bit preemptory in my condemnation of their show. It's not necessarily the Garden Bros. as an individual organization that I am taking moral umbrage with. Rather, it's the circus institution as a whole that sparks my ire.

The concept of a circus rubs me the wrong way in the same vein as "polite" racist comments made by old southern ladies. It keeps itself alive on the basis of tradition, waving away the harmful aspects and moral outrage with an aging hand. Circuses are as outdated as gladiatorial combat, harkening us back to a time when people gathered to receive entertainment at the expense of life. Am I being hyperbolic? Perhaps, but I find the lives and well-being of innocent and confused animals far more important than the reputation of an organization that profits off of abuse.

Here's what I do know: These animals have no fucking clue what's going on. They don't know why, every night, they are subjected to bright lights and loud noises. They are scared out of their goddamn minds because they are, essentially, still wild animals that were plucked from their native lands and forced to run around in circles or face the whip. I cannot express how angry it makes me that a university I pay to attend has decided to allocate its money towards further legitimizing of this sort of behavior.

Please, if you will be in town this Sunday (and I understand many won't be, including myself) take part in the picket protest that will take place on King Street. Will this stop the circus? Probably not. But it will keep the conversation of animal abuse alive which in an important development in the fight against it. Let's work towards making this world a better place to live in for the literally 99% of its inhabitants that aren't shithead humans.