Don’t believe in evolution? Visit the monkey cage.

Now this is indeed a rare time when one can offer a perspective on both evolution and protecting the rights of women from sexual harassment or, in Roy Moore’s case, a strange form of pedophilia. But we live in exceptional times.

So here is how it goes.

Last week, my wife and I visited a zoo in central California. It is a great zoo that also has facilities for people to stay the night on the property. Some on Facebook might have seen the pictures I posted last week. In any event, on the second day as part of our stay we were given a tour of the zoo. We saw many animals ranging from lions, tigers, elephants, and bears to hyenas, kangaroos — well, you get the picture.

One of the tour’s stops was the “monkey” cage. The creatures are devilishly cute, with the emphasis on devil. They were playing and swinging from branches with total delight. Then, one chimp, seeing that our group had congregated around this play area, came up to the fence and with the quickness of Harvey Weinstein revealed his penis and continued to show it throughout the time we were there. It was not completely surprising as I have seen these kind of exhibitions before, but it did strike me as ironically familiar to the contemporary news we see every day.

Now, evolution is accepted by almost every scientist on the planet, and I believe most people also concur with their findings. However, there is a strong subset of people, mostly religious, who still resist this concept. We also know that, as of the day I write this, yet another man has been accused of being sexually aggressive with a woman he worked with back in 2006; Senator Al Franken is now under scrutiny. It seems that once again scientists are correct in the theory of evolution as it played out last week at the zoo. Man (specifically in this case men) have indeed evolved from monkeys.

In the case of the chimps, perhaps their brains are not as developed as ours, especially when it comes to discipline and not giving in to sexual urges any time you feel like it. While I can give our anthropoid friend a pass, the human man, who certainly has evolved from primates, is another story.

Republican or Democrat, famous or infamous, publicly known or your average “Joe,” sexual aggressiveness against any women’s wishes is wrong. And the women who have come out to tell their stories should be commended for showing the courage to do so. An especial case is Republican candidate for senator Roy Moore, who as an adult went after girls who were underage. We must distinguish and place that kind of behavior in a whole other category of insidiousness.

Men of all ages, races, and political persuasion, the next time you feel like you need to show sexual domination toward a female, go visit your local monkey cage. You might find that since you are the evolved species, you may want to rethink your involuntary behavior. Consider it a teaching moment.

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