Saturday, August 25, 2007

Michael Vick and American Culture

Pardon my French here, but this one has me going...

Son of a bitch if I understand what's going on. It's clear from Vick's guilty plea on Aug 24 that he has committed many horrific things. Drowning dogs. Electrocuting dogs. Shooting dogs. Hanging dogs. Strangling dogs. All because they didn't fight well enough, and make Vick and his pals enough money. He's admitted it. And it's clear that someone with only brains enough to play football (very well, though it may be) has thrown away a fortune. What's not clear is the reaction of Vick apologists, particularly those from the black community such as Reverend Marcellus Harris and Minister Michael Muhammad and the NAACP.

By any measure, Vick has been ruthless and inhumane in his treatment of animals. Specifically, beasts recognized the world over and for centuries as being loving, loyal and smart companions and workmates. I refer to dogs, of course. That the black apologists would come forward and diminish the inhumanity Vick and his cohorts displayed tells volumes about their perspective, their fall, and now their irrelevance.

The NAACP should now be renamed the Non-white Association for the Avoidance of Criminal Prosecution. It seems all they do any more is to play race games with the American justice system, in favor of those born with dark skin who commit criminal acts. Note that I said "commit criminal acts." Meaning that individuals, and free-willed individuals at that, had every right and freedom to commit a good act, or a bad one. They chose the bad one. So, irrespective of skin color or anything else, they should be punished.

But in the Vick case, black apologists like the NAACP are likening Vick's behavior to the legal hunting of deer and other game by white people. Harris and Muhammad tried to liken Vick's media attention to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan shenanigans, no doubt because the latter two idiots are white. Additionally, the NAACP seems incredibly concerned for Vick's career:

"As a society, we should aid in his rehabilitation and welcome a new Michael Vick back into the community without a permanent loss of his career in football," said White, president of the NAACP's Atlanta chapter. "We further ask the NFL, Falcons, and the sponsors not to permanently ban Mr. Vick from his ability to bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country."

Is the NAACP concerned for Vick, or are they courting a donation to cover their well-publicized financial incompetence?

In the end, what they are all trying to do is to make it hunkey-dorey for Vick to commit horrendously inhumane and criminal acts, implying it's a black cultural manifestation of the way white culture treats animals. Are you outraged yet? That apparently intelligent people would say this takes my breath away.

The NAACP and other leading blacks taking this stance shows a clear racist bias: under no circumstances should any "hero" such as Vick be allowed to be punished for the same thing that whites do, right? Vick killed animals the same as whites do, right? Of course, they don't discuss the manner nor the purpose. Their logic screams in the night...

This is what marks the NAACP's and black leadership's fall and makes them irrelevant. (Let's set aside for a moment that the organization only works in the interests of blacks, not other "colored people.")

Whereas in the past the organization made strides toward true racial equivalence, this flavor of NAACP bites at every case where blacks are caught doing something wrong, and makes desperate attempts to apply argument that justifies the criminal actions of these individuals. They have moved well beyond being an organization that "rights the wrongs" of a lopsided past, and are moving into territory where those they choose to represent are free to do anything they see fit - including criminal acts without fear of prosecution based on their skin color. The goal is no longer equality, but complete unaccountability. The word hypocrisy does not even begin to fit the NAACP agenda.

The first position of any organization which stands for the rights of others should be to recognize that all living creatures have the right to a decent life. This includes not only all races, but also all species. All living things have imbued in them the spirit of life, but we humans, being the highest order of life, have qualities which place us apart from the beasts. These qualities, however, give humans responsibilities which are not to be taken lightly. They involve decent and humane treatment for all, including our animal brethren. It involves the protection of lesser beings.

It is here that both Vick and the NAACP go awry of decency; NAACP's R.L. White, president of the NAACP's Atlanta chapter, said, "Michael Vick has received more negative press than if he had killed a human being... His crime is, it was a dog."

Yes, a dog, a being deserving of protection rather than the torturous, painful life and death at the hands of its human owner, all for the sake of greed and money.

I would have hoped that we have all learned and become more sophisticated about life, out of the crucible of slavery and the pursuit of civil rights, but apparently many have not.

Look into the eyes of your pet, or the smile on a dog, and tell me this is not right.


Zebron and James