Forget Barbaro, Remember Humans

The track of the Kentucky Derby will never be the same, for the greatest athlete of all time has passed. Taken to absolution by the equine equivalent of athlete's foot, Barbaro put up the good fight. Now that we can all check off the "shed a tear for a horse" on our to-do list, the national collective can reflect on how utterly ridiculous and idiotic it is that people actually cared.

In the wake of a week with 21 troop casualties in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense, what is everyone so worked up about? The death of a horse. All throughout the week, news networks have been broadcasting with increased enthusiasm the development of this story that was over the second it broke. I even heard, Kleenex at the ready, the tear-jerking press conference where Barabaro's owner shared all of our grief. Why was she so sad? Because she lost a friend, an animal that helped her through all her hard times in life? No. She lost a multi-million dollar investment. Barbaro (and horse racing in general for that matter) is all about making tons of money off an event that lasts a couple minutes at the most. The Barbaro fiasco has continued with this tradition.

You know there is something seriously wrong with our society when a horse gets more medical attention than a person. Barbaro received the Ivy League treatment, according to MSNBC, landing himself in the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. Perhaps more ridiculous is the fact that Barbaro received a procedure described as a "horse raft" that kept him suspended in a heated recovery pool, taking weight off his fragile limbs" according to MSNBC's Nick Summers. As if the horse inflatable inertube was not enough, this contraption devised by the brilliant minds at UPenn (some of whom, if they keep this up, may cure cancer), brought in around $1.2 million in donations. Once again, there is profit to be made, even with a crippled horse.

It is completely shameful and appalling that people are making money off a poor horse in misery. Barbaro was used as more of a test rat than a patient and was the lucky recipient of a whole host of experimental procedures. What is even more of a disgrace is how all of this money could have been used for a far more beneficial purpose.

The African nation of Ethiopia, for example has 1.5 million people living with AIDS, and about 120,000 dead in 2003 from the epidemic, according to the CIA World Factbook. In order to more effectively frame this, U.S. Census Bureau statistics state that the amount of people with AIDS in Ethiopia is almost equivalent to the entire population of Rhode Island.

The AIDS epidemic is spreading like wildfire throughout Africa because people cannot get enough money and supplies to help combat the horrible disease. An effective treatment against AIDS utilizes AZT medication, which costs about $2,738 per person for a year, according to the World Bank. This means that the money wasted on Barbaro donations to UPenn could help prolong the life of about 438 people suffering from the AIDS virus in Ethiopia. What is more important, 438 people whose life work could help make the world a better place, or a horse that had the innate ability to run fast before his hoof rotted off?

There are too many current social problems, diseases and wars to have wasted so much money on a horse. Furthermore, the Barbaro story that blanketed the press this past week took up time and print that could have been used to report on much more socially important events. For example, last week, on top of the 21 troops who died in Iraq, iraqbodycount.org put the minimum civilian death rate in Iraq at 55,136 since the start of the war. Closer to home, Sen. Joe Biden launched a bid for the White House, and Exxon-Mobil broke the record for the highest profit gain ever in a year. But if you were to ask the average UConn student what they remember the most about last week, it would probably be UConn's losing record in men's basketball and the death of Barbaro.

All of the attention that the unfortunate passing of this horse has garnered is disgusting. It was sad the horse died and was not able to continue on with his career but when people in our country turn their back on the poverty present in our nation's cities and instead shell out millions for a horse, then all of us should be ashamed. Barbaro was a horse, not a person, and should have never been treated better than a human being.

The hype over the death of Barbaro showed in vivid detail the pathetic reliance of Americans on materialism, wealth and our consistent apathy toward one other.