Michael Vick Remains An Affront To Civil Society
With yet another exciting NFL season in high gear, I suppose it was just a matter of time before former disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick started showing his face. Well, at least sort of. This lousy excuse for a human being is in Surry County Virginia right now awaiting his big day on Tuesday where he will plead guilty in the Surry County Circuit Court to two state charges of “beating or killing or causing dogs to fight other dogs and engaging in or promoting dogfighting.” Why he’s allowed to breathe without intense difficulty leaves me somewhat breathless. I mean, he’s a dog killer for crying out loud!
You shouldn’t have to be a dog lover to hope that he would receive the maximum penalty for his state crimes. That’s ten years. Five years for each count. I would have no problem knowing Sick Vick is locked away for the next decade. He shouldn’t be allowed to return to society anytime soon. He totally violated the rules when it comes to living in a civil society. It wasn’t a surprise back then that he lied about it. What do you really expect from someone who kills dogs?
Well, it appears very likely that by pleading guilty to the two charges he will receive a suspended sentence and probation. This leaves him poised to be a free man by next summer. When you combine the previous federal sentence he is presently serving for a dogfighting conspiracy conviction, with the two state charges being heard Tuesday, talk of Michael Vick enjoying freedom next year sounds extremely disturbing. His lawyers themselves are a disturbing lot as they actually had the audacity to try and allow Sick Vick to make his plea by videoconference. And you wonder why there are so many lawyer jokes.
But hold on. Hold that ludicrous thought out in the open for a few more seconds. Please utter this three letter word with me – WHY? Why would we do anything that would make a dog killer’s life easier? Why does Michael Vick deserve any consideration or mercy at all? Having been a talented professional football player in the NFL should and does mean nothing when you hold it up to the disgusting things he did to innocent dogs while he wasn’t wearing an Atlanta Falcons uniform. Someone ought to wipe that pathetic smile off his face.
Again, don’t ever forget that he purposefully lied to family, friends, fans, police and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank. He eventually admitted that he participated in the killing of underperforming dogs and other crimes. I just can’t believe that for bankrolling a dogfighting operation, Michael Vick – or any other thug of any skin color – cannot simply be made to serve all the time in the maximum sentence allowed under the law. The sad thing that remains true nationwide is that dog killers of every skin color and position in society never serve out the full sentence handed down. They serve nowhere near it.
This speaks volumes to the kind of jaded society we have allowed ourselves to become. Anything goes. There are no rules. You do what you can get away with. Morals? Please stop. Standards? You must be kidding. Common sense and common decency? That’s now uncommon. No one is responsible any longer for their emotional, financial and moral behavior. It doesn’t matter if you’re an executive at AIG or a cashier that willingly signed a mortgage way beyond your means. We’ve all become adult children who repeat the same asinine slogan over and over again: “I’m not responsible!”
A society can ultimately be judged on how members of that society treat animals. Especially, dogs and cats. You don’t need me to tell you that millions of us are very responsible and loving in the way we care for the millions of dogs and cats we call members of our family. So, it’s easy to see why what dog killers like Michael Vick chose to do remains an affront to civil society. He didn’t just break the law. He found a way to break our heart and any chance of pretending to think we don’t know the evil things he did and the vile things he must have thought while doing them.
If NFL commissioner Roger Goodell does his job as a commissioner and as a man, he won’t let Sick Vick near a professional football field. He cannot allow the almost surreal possibility of fans cheering him on, while simultaneously, they begin to forget what Michael Vick did. What he did was unforgivable. I don’t care how many dogfighting apologists sound stupid in saying it’s a cultural thing. Time out. It’s in no way a human thing.
For Michael Vick to return next year to an arena of life that’s built on character, loyal and teamwork, it can be said that “justice served” is indeed a thing of the past.
Tony Zizza is a free-lance writer who lives in Hermitage, TN. He writes frequently about animals and popular culture.
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