07/20/2007: "Michael Vick"

With Sofee and Crackers

This is a hard one to write. Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is under a federal indictment for dog fighting, gambling, animal cruelty, and other assorted related crimes. The NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell has wrung his hands, but refused to suspend him. The owner of the Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Blank, allowed that he was "saddened and distressed".

Michael Vick should be presumed innocent in our courts until proven guilty. I have a funny feeling about this one, though. These alleged crimes--the dog fights, the gambling, the unimaginably cruel murders of the dogs who underperformed--all occurred at Vick's house. I understand it is a large spread, but how could you not know all that was going on there? How do you get accused by one of the prosecutor's witnesses of personally killing eight dogs? The right thing for Blank or Goodell to do is suspend Vick until the matter is settled. Vick himself does not have the balls to excuse himself from the public eye.

Cruelty to an animal for any reason, much less for public amusement is unspeakable.

I've been anti-fur for a long time. I "buried" my furs in a deep corner of my closet where they stayed until a relative took them without my knowledge. I have agonized that they returned to the world to be worn in public. No, I am not a vegan or even a regular vegetarian, but it troubles me to eat creatures. It is some small comfort that the The Dali Lama himself is only a vegetarian three or four days a week.

I speak here for four dogs who inhabit my universe. They occasionally argue among themselves over a chew toy or a spot on the bed. They are small, to be sure, and would be no match for Vick's trained fighters. But they are more than a match for Michael Vick in morals. It that department, they tower over Arthur Black, Roger Goodell, and Michael Vick.

Replies: 4 Comments

on Wednesday, September 12th, John said

Since your posting, Vick has pleaded guilty and admits to his criminal behavior. But if I'm any judge of human nature, the judge will give him a light sentence since Vick is a celebrity.
What a crock!!!

on Saturday, August 18th, Arianna said

Who let the dog out?

on Saturday, August 18th, mshyde said

Mr.Vick as any other citizen or resident of this country has the inalienable right to a trial by his
peers.
Regardless of the crime of which he was accused, he is
presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

on Saturday, July 21st, Bob said

Thanks for posting this.

I cannot even bear to read the stories or reports of Michael Vick.

I can only hope and assume justice will be done.

I'm not sure the world has gotten more barbaric in the last decades or centuries. It's always been, I think, partly beautiful, partly ugly.

Just that, with the internet, more of us know about it, faster.

I'm glad we do.

My instinct? Do to these monstrous "human beings" what they're convicted of doing to innocent animals. (Yeah, yeah, IF they're convicted. Then again, where there's smoke, there's fire. When was the last time any of US were accused of these crimes? Get real.)

Then again, my instinct to have done to them what they did to other animals makes me one of them, does it not?

Or maybe it's one thing to kill for sustenance and another to torture and kill for "entertainment."

I'm not one for false sentiment, I'm afraid.

I don't want these beasts to be accepted into the Human Race anymore than Nazis.

After all the "love and forgiveness" Hallmark Card bromides and religious nostrums are said and done, do to them what they've done to others.

Rid us of them.

Like Nazis, these "people" are cancers on the human race.

You don't smile and forgive colon cancer or breast cancer.

You cut it out and kill it.

Whether it's Michael Vick or his friends and family . . . whoever did this on his property (and yes, SOMEBODY did, per the indictments) deserves exactly the same horrendous fate as those innocent dogs.

There are people who represent the ugliest, most vicious and backward of human nature.

Then there are people like you, Miss Van Doren.

Thanks for your pic with Sofee and Crackers.

And thanks for staying dangerous and posting stuff like this.