At one point the NFL had a player who was by far the most dynamic athlete at his position the world has ever seen. All across America people in every city could be seen wearing his patented #7 jersey. At the height of his career he signed one of the most lucrative contracts in NFL history. Life was good. Just as fast as he signed his name on the dotted line, one act of irresponsibility completely turned his world upside down. With charges of running an underground dog fighting ring facing him, Micheal Vick was on his way back to the world he had worked so hard to escape. But like so many athletes today who make it into the elite world of sports and entertainment, Vick was cursed with the burden of choosing between his new life and his old friends.
I remember when the media began it’s campaign of relentlessly shredding his life to pieces. Vick’s face could be seen on the front page of every news paper. Then Peta jumped on board to throw more gasoline on the fire by showing images of dogs that were mauled from fights they were in. Kids were shown on TV wearing T-shirts saying: “I hate Micheal Vick.” While this media storm raged I couldn’t help wondering to myself if I had been a foreigner to this country, had never heard of the sport of dog-fighting, and was introduced to it by landing in the middle of this frenzy I would have thought that Mickeal Vick “invented” the sport, when in actuality dog-fighting has been an on-going sport in this country for over 200 years. I am not an advocate for it but can’t help wondering one question. Why the big fuss about it now? Nobody cried about it from the time of it’s existence before so why the big fuss over it now?
It is amazing to me the things that some people in this country will stand up for and the things that they will blatantly ignore. While the media bombardment continued I saw a Fox News article online underneath a story on the impending Vick trial in fine print about an ex KKK member who was on trial for kid-napping, torturing, and chaining two 19 year old African American boys to a jeep engine. He then dumped them alive into the Mississippi river where they both drowned. The irony behind this story is the fact that this horrific crime took place on May 2, 1964. Yet the men responsible for the crime were not brought to justice (Or at least the incentive to bring them to justice was not seriously expressed) until 2007. How hard did the authorities look for them? One can not help but get the impression that America cares more about the lives of dogs than it does about the lives of people.
“We never want to see Mickeal Vick in an NFL uniform again!” Peta wasted no time to jump into the spotlight. This was just the opportunity they needed to bring themselves more publicity. This organization claims to love animals, yet is responsible for sending more dogs to the kennel yearly than Vick’s entire operation could send in 4 lifetimes. To call it hypocrisy would actually be a compliment to the deed as the word just wouldn’t give the impact of how ridiculous this organization is. Yet they have the audacity to condemn another human being for something they have been doing from the time of their existence. Some people may argue that putting an animal to sleep is not the same thing as dog fighting. My answer to that is; Who made you God & gave you the right to decide which animals deserve to live and which ones deserve to die? Here’s more irony for you. In this country you can hunt deer, fish, bears, and moose for mere sport. You can stuff them, tac them on your wall for decoration, and have your own TV show while doing it! America will even pay you to watch you do it. But God forbid you hurt a damn dog! All hell breaks loose the moment you do. I will let you all in on a little well kept secret. Dog-fighting is illegal in this country for the exact same reason selling drugs and prostitution is. Anytime you make money in this country in ways that the US government can’t get their filthy, greasy hands on it they call it “illegal.” That is the true definition of Hypocrisy at it’s finest.
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