Friday, August 14, 2009

Weighing in on the Michael Vick signing

I have not really had anything that just captured my attention for a while, so not much to post. The signing of Michael Vick by the Philadelphia Eagles is not so much the focus of this blog as is the response to the signing.

Let me start out with my disclaimer. I am a total dog lover. I love my dogs so much. I think dogfighting is a truly perverted and sick activity.

As much as I love dogs, I would not put dogfighting as the single worst activity one human can engage in. Yet, the firestorm, and it most definitely is a firestorm, that this signing has created in the city of Philadelphia, and across the internet is amazing.

I find a couple of major issues. Seems like there is the question of whether Michael Vick deserves a second chance. Stepping back from Michael Vick, I thought that was one of the foundational plans for our correctional structure. How many people have gone to prison, become rehabilitated and now are positive healthy parts of society. Why is Michael Vick not a potential for this?

That leads into the second issue. As I noted in the beginning, I love dogs, but the the current backlash is so much hyperbole when compared to people who have commited serial murder, serial rape. Where is the public outcry for those type of actions?

Two NFL athletes. One convicted of dogfighting and another convicted of DUI manslaughter. One gets 23 months in prison and another gets 24 days. One gets the protesters and the circus we are seeing now and I am willing to bet when the other comes back to the NFL there will be hardly any media coverage at all. Is there something blown out of proportion in this picture? Maybe, or maybe not.



No comments:

Post a Comment