America prides itself for being a place of redemption. Everyone deserves a second chance, at least as long as you are not a pro football star by the name of Michael Vick.
I love how America works. We allow the media and special interest groups to determine what issues are salient in are everyday lives. We allow other people to decide what is acceptable and what is immoral and then follow blindly without question or complaint. Allow me to explain what I mean.
Let me begin by saying that what Michael Vick did to those poor dogs was wrong and inexcusable. There is no way around that fact. However he has paid his debt to society, spent the time in jail, over a year and half in fact. He has lost almost 130 Million dollars and had to file for bankruptcy, not to mention the damage done to his career and reputation by all of the negative publicity. Michael Vick has indeed suffered for his crimes.
Now Michael has a chance at redemption. His friend and fellow NFL quarterback Donovan Mcnabb became an advocate on his behalf and got Vick a two year deal with the Eagles. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has partially reinstated Vick into the league, allowing him to begin to peice his life back together.
In a moving interview with 60 Minutes, Vick described his remorse over the whole ordeal. He talked about the hurt and pain from his bad decisions and the realization that his actions had consequences that were very serious. Vick said during the interview that he cried many nights in jail and was very sorry for all the crimes he had committed. He has since partnered with the humane society and has gone on several speaking tours to talk to young kids about the evils of animal cruelty and dog fighting.
Unfortunately this is not enough for some people. There was a woman on Larry King Live last night who would not stop talking about the fact that Vick had committed a horrible crime. As a PETA representative, I understand where she was coming from but her attitude and mindset towards the matter were simply appalling. Everyone else on the show kept asking her whether Vick deserved forgiveness and a second chance. Everyone agreed that what he did was horrible but most thought that the deal with the Eagles was a positive situation. However the Peta rep dodged all questions about the need for a second chance and simply repeated over and over that "the dogs he killed didn't get a second chance".
She is not alone in this opinion. Several Eagles fans have threatened to boycott games because the franchise signed this pariah onto their team. Everyone is focused on the Vick drama and no one is worried about the real problem with the NFL and with the American legal framework and with society in general which is unfair penalties for disparate crimes. No one is talking about the fact that another NFL star, Donte Stallworth, who killed a person and not animals, not only will spend less time in jail than Michael Vick, but is having less negative coverage in the media. This makes no sense, How can one spend more time in jail for killing dogs than for killing a human being?
Its time to stop treating Michael Vick like the dogs that he fought and killed. The parallels are striking. Michael Vick trained these dogs to fight and to entertain and make a profit. But as soon as they were no longer useful they were terminated and cast out, undesirables that no one wanted to deal with anymore. Michael Vick plays football games in an arena that involves grown men fighting to control a pig skin crafted into the shape of the ball. Every Sunday stadiums fill to watch this game, millions of dollars are made and people are entertained by the likes of Vick. But as soon as he becomes undesirable or unable to perform he is thrown to the wolves. Some say that this is just business practices at work and to some extent I agree. After all no franchise wants to keep a player that will bring down their team either performance-wise or in the eyes of the fans. But it wasnt just the Falcons that wrote Vick off. It was a large portion of Americans who decided that this entertainer wasn't worth rehabilitation or a second chance.
What's funny is that all of these football fans who are crying about Philadelphia signing Vick will forget all about when Sportscenter shows Mcnabb throwing Vick a touchdown pass out of the new wildcat formation. After Vick has proved that he is still an incredible athlete capable of making big plays and drawing large crowds despite being out of comission for two years, all will be forgiven. That is wonderful for Vick, but what does this say about American society? Michael Vick deserves a second chance, not because of his incredible talent, but because everyone makes mistakes and everyone deserves a second chance. The guy that Donte Stallworth killed while driving under the influence didn't get a second chance. If Stallworth is getting a second chance, then Vick definitely deserves one, everyone needs to lighten up and stop going on these pointless witch hunts. The man said he was sorry, lets save our righteous anger for something a little more important than this.
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