There seems to be a big hubbub because President Obama called the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles professional football team to thank him for giving quarterback Michael Vick a second chance. Tucker Carlson of Fox News went so far as to say that he didn't think Vick should have been given anything; Carlson thought Vick should have been executed for his crime!
For those of you who live outside of the US (or folks in the US who live in a cave), Vick was convicted in 2007 for his participation in an illegal dogfighting enterprise. He served 21 months in federal prison and lost millions of dollars in salary and endorsements.
As an animal lover, I was sickened over the whole affair and I thought it was appropriate that Vick was punished. But the man paid is debt to society and so I think what Obama did was laudatory.
Prison wasn't enough for a lot of people. They have continued to harass Vick. There have been protests at the stadiums where his team has played. And there are knuckleheads like Carlson who seem to want an eye-for-an-eye.
As with many things in this nation, I think much of the outrage over Vick's crimes has to do with the fact he is black! I simply do not believe that a star white quarterback would have been subjected to this amount of vitriol. (Check out this interesting article.)
While the racial aspect bothers me a great deal, what truly raises my hackles is that many of the same people who want Vick's head don't exhibit the same amount of outrage in other instances in which one or more persons are guilty of crimes of murder or widespread destruction.
These same people don't call for the head of one George W. Bush, a man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. You don't hear them demanding the incarceration of BP executives who are chiefly responsible for destroying an entire ecosystem -- think of all the wildlife their recklessness doomed. (Why are the deaths of dogs so abhorrent, yet these folks register hardly a peep in defense of dead dolphins, sea turtles, shrimp, etc.?)
And you don't hear many of these same people calling for the vigorous prosecution of all the various government officials and big moneyed interests who, in their singular pursuit of greed, have brought most of the world to its financial knees!!
No, all their hate-filled rhetoric is focused on one black man (well, two, if we include the president).
For those of you who live outside of the US (or folks in the US who live in a cave), Vick was convicted in 2007 for his participation in an illegal dogfighting enterprise. He served 21 months in federal prison and lost millions of dollars in salary and endorsements.
As an animal lover, I was sickened over the whole affair and I thought it was appropriate that Vick was punished. But the man paid is debt to society and so I think what Obama did was laudatory.
Prison wasn't enough for a lot of people. They have continued to harass Vick. There have been protests at the stadiums where his team has played. And there are knuckleheads like Carlson who seem to want an eye-for-an-eye.
As with many things in this nation, I think much of the outrage over Vick's crimes has to do with the fact he is black! I simply do not believe that a star white quarterback would have been subjected to this amount of vitriol. (Check out this interesting article.)
While the racial aspect bothers me a great deal, what truly raises my hackles is that many of the same people who want Vick's head don't exhibit the same amount of outrage in other instances in which one or more persons are guilty of crimes of murder or widespread destruction.
These same people don't call for the head of one George W. Bush, a man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. You don't hear them demanding the incarceration of BP executives who are chiefly responsible for destroying an entire ecosystem -- think of all the wildlife their recklessness doomed. (Why are the deaths of dogs so abhorrent, yet these folks register hardly a peep in defense of dead dolphins, sea turtles, shrimp, etc.?)
And you don't hear many of these same people calling for the vigorous prosecution of all the various government officials and big moneyed interests who, in their singular pursuit of greed, have brought most of the world to its financial knees!!
No, all their hate-filled rhetoric is focused on one black man (well, two, if we include the president).
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