Can Killing Be Excused?
Atlanta NAACP Weighs In On Michael Vick in this link. Its President said, well read what he said.
I listen to a fair amount of sports talk radio if the local news station and NPR are boring as I drive. There’s a divide in Atlanta on the fate and culpability of our former quarterback.
I can’t see this story as racial. Cultural, yes. Mike Vick grew up and didn’t have a lot. He made a lot of bad choices. He became the current trendy word, a thug.
He has an enormous amount of ability to play football; but, at each turn in his life he has chosen to do wrong. That isn’t a black or white thing. We can talk all we want about what makes bad people become bad, but race isn’t a factor. Culture can be.
Without knowing, I think Vick was disserved by his family, community and teachers. That said, he started and continued down a path that apparently led him to fight dogs. If they didn’t win, he participated in killing them. Not humanly, if that is a possibility, but gruesomely.
From what I’ve read over the past month, there are white and black people who do the same thing. They are all thugs. They’ve done wrong.
To explain, justify or try to mitigate his culpability or fate by saying that he is the victim of racial bias is plain stupid. That seems to be what the local NAACP guy is trying to do.
If the black community is defending or marginalizing what Vick has done, it is making a mistake. There are things that people shouldn’t do regardless of their social condition, race, ethnic backround or religious persuasion. Vick did one of those things. Timothy McVey did one of those things, on a larger scale. As did, the “In Cold Blood” killers, Pol Pot, the Menendez brothers, the 9/11 terrorists and a host of others.
To equate a killer of dogs, especially in the manner in which these dogs are reported to have been killed, to a hunter, regardless of your feelings about hunting, is stupid. As close as I can come to a comparison is bull fighting, and that is barbaric, and wrong.
Wanton killing is not a good thing. It doesn’t matter what the object of your killing is. Your social, racial, ethnic or religious status has no effect on the wrongness of your actions. Whoever you are, where ever you come from, don’t do it.
5 comments:
It shouldn't be a racial thing, but the NAACP might well end up making it one. What he did was wrong. I don't care how someone is brought up. Dog fighting is a felony, and even if you aren't totally clear on the morality of what dog fighting entails, the fact that it is a FELONY should be a major clue. And how someone could kill a dog, I don't even know (exceptions made for humane reasons - if a dog has been run over and is suffering, for example, but this doesn't apply in Vick's case).
It is strange to me how some things end up being "a racial issue" when it should be cut and dried. Especially in this case, where a guilty plea implies very strongly that the events did actually happen.
But there was a black/white divide in opinion over the OJ thing too, wasn't there? Is this going to happen any time a high-profile case comes up in the news?
Having read your comment and having thought about your comment on the Grady, soon to be implosion, I'm depressed when it comes to our ability to get beyond race in our dealings with each other.
Adding to my depression is our City's reputation for racial equality and tolerance. Yet, when there is a problem, we snipe, not you or me, "we."
"The city too busy to hate."
We have a long way to go.
Dog fighting along with cock fighting I believe are both illegal, are they not? The fact this so-called "sport" is considered illegal should be the issue -not whether those participating were black or white. I generally can see gray areas to a lot of things but this is one where there is no gray, just black or white but in terms of right vs. wrong. Even along cultural lines, there should be a line of demarcation there -this is right, allowed; this is wrong - just flat out WRONG! There is no comparison whatsoever of dog fighting to deer hunting, none whatsoever! At least, most people who hunt use the meat for food on their or someone's table. Pitting animals against each other to watch them kill is blood sport and therefore, not a sport at all.
I can understand people who make a mistake due to lack of education, due to being oppressed, due to being backed into a corner and seeing no other recourse but to try to pass this off as a racial thing, now that is just flat out outrageous. "Teach your children right" -whether they be black or white -should be the follow-up line to that song.
What bothered me as much as the fighting of dogs was the cruel ways he killed the dogs who underperformed. Why would you hang a dog, unless you just enjoy watching animals suffer?
Ugh. I don't even want to think about this anymore.
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