Michael Vick-tim

By now, I’m sure that EVERYONE has heard about that situation with Atlanta Falcons’ Quarterback Michael Vick. Now, I think I’ll add my two cents to this whole deal.

Michael Vick is a no-good piece of shit. That just about sums up my opinion of him. Before anyone tries to defend him in any way, I suggest that they look at the following photograph:

That is what the “winner” of a dog fight looks like. I can only imagine what the loser looked like. I suspect that the loser looked somewhat like raw hamburger.

I have heard many people attempt to turn this whole situation into an issue of race. I say that that is beyond ridiculous. I have even heard people compare dog-fighting to the hunting of deer (I’m referring to RL White, the head of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP). This is also beyond ridiculous. I don’t even see how anyone could possibly make that comparison. For one thing, deer are not trained to kill other deer inside a ring. For another thing, no one is out hunting dogs that I am aware of. In my estimation, none of the differences between deer hunting and dog-fighting even matter. The dogs at Michael Vick’s “kennel” were subjected to what could best be described as inhumane treatment. They were trained to fight and to kill other dogs. When they did not perform to the standards that their owners would have liked, they were executed by electrocution, drowning, strangulation, hanging, shooting and, in one case, smashed head first into the ground.

Because of the means of execution that I stated in the last sentence of the last paragraph, I cannot help but marvel at the following statement:

"I think it's tough that we build Michael Vick up and then we break him down," Marbury added. "I think he's one of the superb athletes, and he's a good human being. I just think that he fell into a bad situation." – Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks

How on Earth can anyone look at the treatment of these animals as an indicator of the behavior of “a good human being”? One of the ways that a society can be judged is by the way that it treats its animals. Sure, we eat meat, but we do so for survival. Meat processing companies do not always treat the animals that they process for this meat in the most humane of ways, but they should be held accountable for this. In my opinion, all animals should be treated humanely and, if they are food sources, should be slaughtered in the least cruel of ways. We, as humans, are responsible for the care of the animals that are less than us. Michael Vick should be punished severely for his reckless disregard for the life of another being.

As for this being a race issue, I say screw that. People say that this is only a big deal because Mike Vick is black. That’s bullshit and these accusers know it. The only reason that this issue is being covered by the media to such a large extent is because Mike Vick is famous. Famous and stupid. He is stupid because he had a contract with the Atlanta Falcons for $130 million. He also had endorsement deals with Nike, EA Sports, Coca-Cola, Powerade, Kraft, Rawlings, Hasbro and AirTran Airways worth many more millions of dollars. He has effectively thrown all of this away over dog-fighting. From every report that I have read, Michael Vick had not had any serious run-ins with law enforcement (that lead to any conviction) prior to this incident, including during his youth in public housing in Virginia. So, why commit yourself to something so thuggish now that you are so successful? What a waste of a human being’s potential.

But Mike Vick is not alone in this waste. There are many others in sports and entertainment who have thrown their potential down the proverbial toilets or hurt themselves in some way due to thuggish behavior. Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Ray Lewis, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Suge Knight, Adam “Pacman” Jones” are but a few. I do not understand why it is that people feel the need to engage in this manner of behavior when they have so many options at their fingertips. Apologists like to imply that it is because of their race. I can site several examples of people of the same race who have not engaged in this type of behavior once they became successful. Some of those would include: Ice-T, Ice Cube, Shaquille O’Neill, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Warren Sapp, Deion Sanders and many others. So the race question is moot. The number of sports and entertainment figures who have avoided trouble far outnumber the number of those who have not.

In the end, I do not feel one iota of pity for this sack of excrement. He is not a victim of the media. He is not a victim of a racist criminal justice system. He is a victim of only his inability to distinguish right from wrong. So, in effect, he is a victim of only himself and he is the only one to blame.