Fossilitating Our History

As I'm sure you already know from your google calendar alert, July is National Dinosaur Month. Every year, we use the hottest month of the summer to celebrate the achievements, history, and struggle of these often forgotten behemoths. From PSA's featuring celebrities talking up the contributions of their favorite dinosaurs to free outdoor screenings of The Land Before Time to showcases of traditional dinosaur dancing (the "triceratop hop" is a favorite amongst young people), the month is filled with jurassic-sized learning opportunities that remind us that nothing is cooler than dinosaurs...except maybe robot dinosuars! Robo-sauruses (or is it Robo-sauri?) if you will.

As I sit here writing this, clad in my favorite sweater with a smiling stegosaurus on the chest (it reads "Dinosaur Picnic: I got the plates, you bring the cups."), I'm reminded of my childhood when these giant reptiles ruled my imagination. Other kids spent afternoons dreaming of playing in the NBA or flying to the moon, while I dreamed of becoming an actual brontosaurus. (Did you know that the brontosaurus' nostrils are located at the top of its head rather than beneath its eyes? I did.) I spent hours upon hours doing neck-stretch exercises and eating leaves off the plastic fern in our living room. I wrote emergency evacuation plans in case meteors struck the earth once again. I would tell my mom things like, "I need a bath' cuz I'm exSTINK!" I even dressed up the neighbor's dog like a T-rex and practiced running away from it.

But then, my world came crashing down like a pile of dinosaur bones at the Natural History Museum during an earthquake. In 1993, Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton made a piece of anti-dinosaur propaganda called Jurassic Park. It's like Birth of a Nation to the dinosaur community. It depicted our Cretaceous friends as violent, savage beasts that threaten humanity with sharp claws, giant fangs, and an insatiable appetite for flesh. It was one of the lowest points in history (second to a certain meteor shower), but because of the outrcry that followed this hateful, ignorant, speciesist movie, the pro-dinosaur movement was truly galvanized. The movement blossomed instantenously just like a tiny capsule submerged in hot water that suddenly turns into a dinosaur-shaped sponge.

Millions took to the streets and demanded equality for dinosaurs no matter how large they were, no matter how small their brains, no matter how dead and extinct they remained. The outpouring of support was infectious. People everywhere wore Che Guevara-like t-shirts featuring a militant Iguanadon or they wore buttons that said "Tip the SCALES of justice for DINOSAURS" and "Spielberg, you'll be dinoSORRY!" The movement was victorsaurious when in 1995 then President Bill Clinton signed a bill apologizing for past wrongdoings against dinosaurs and declared July National Dinosaur Month.

Since then, dinosaurs have been woven into the fabric of our society. "Rex" is ranked number 2 on the most common baby names list. Toronto named their professional basketball team the "Raptors." And last November, we elected our first black/apatosaurus president Barack Hussein Littlefoot Obama. And the rest, as they say, is pre-history.

Happy National Dinosaur Month! Enjoy this clip of Dinosaucers, warring factions of dinosaurs from outer space!