September 3, 2007

The World Against Michael Vick: Keeping Our Sports & Consciences Clean

 

Like most people I was disgusted and angry at the recent revelations of the dog-fighting avocation of NFL quarterback Michael Vick. I’m a dog fanatic myself. Chulo, our 12-year-old black-lab-and-something mix, has been the center of our lives. My canine-phyllic sensibilities had not been so violated since witnessing the caged dogs in the food section of a Guangzhou, China market several years ago.

 

Apparently, pit bulls were used for the often-lethal combat sport, and sometimes killed afterward in painful ways if they didn’t perform to the organizers’ expectations. It brings back echoes of the Iraqi Olympics under Uday Hussein. The treatment of those poor creatures makes me angry and sick.

 

I do, however, see distortion in the public reaction.

 

The outrage suggests a qualitatively different level of cruelty from other “sporting” activities in which animals are maimed or killed – hunting, for example. Or for that matter, the killing of animals to make available most of the protein we consume every day. What if a famous athlete was found investing in a hog farm in Iowa? What a scandal!

 

Imagine the horrific reaction to a ”sporting” activity in which defenseless birds were caged, swung, let out and then killed with a shotgun, with a margin of error that would make this boring at the Perkins School for the Blind. At least Michael Vick didn’t shoot any of his friends. The Perkins hunters would have been listening for human breathing before they let loose, unlike Vice President Cheney.

 

Other examples of this double standard exist. Bullfighting is an easy target, though practiced by foreigners that many prefer not even be allowed into this country. Cockfighting still exists, albeit without celebrity sponsors, and so is generally under the radar.  

 

Ethical issues aside, there are political elements here – beginning with the victims. Some animals are more valued than others by people who make the rules. If the Cantonese were in charge, they might only make sure the canine victim’s carcasses were put to good use. If you drive in India, you’d better not hit a cow, much less eat one. If it’s a Muslim area, you won’t find people eating pork. I want to start an advocacy group for the poor Indian lambs – who have no religion protecting them from slaughter.

 

The most important political element concerns who is performing the awful deeds, and who is being offended. Dog fighting is an activity of the lower classes. No vice presidents need apply. Highly paid sports celebrities are supposed to leave behind their former haunts and friends and become one of “us”. Apparently, Michael didn’t do that.

 

The sky falls much harder on transgressing celebrities – organizing deadly dog fights, screaming anti-Semitic epithets at police, etc. Unfair? I don’t buy it. Celebrities, in most cases, choose their celebrity, and are paid a lot of for their trouble. By the way, if writing this column ever creates the possibility of propelling me into celebrity status, I want out. (I‘m not too concerned.)

 

Some black leaders are seeing racism, if not in the charges themselves, then in the outrage and enthusiasm in their pursuit. Though class snobbery is evident, it’s difficult for me to see the racism here, though I recognize limitations in my white, middle class perspective. I even thought O.J. was guilty.

 

Even I can see one example. Some perceive anger from the white world at a black man with the opportunity for this level of fame and fortune flippantly throwing it all away, as in “ungrateful”. It’s a good point. We’re not hearing similar characterizations of a tall, limited white guy from the Northwest throwing away a long Senate career as a result of strange behavior in a gay-frequented men’s room in Minneapolis – only Republican panic.

 

My point is certainly not intended to lessen our disgust at this practice, or other such depraved activities, especially if perpetrators are in a position to influence young people because of their role model status – heaven help us. Celebrities have a special responsibility. Someone needs to explain that to them early on. Perhaps we need a celebrity orientation program.

 

When faced by this kind of horrible act, we need to slow down and take in the big picture. Our resulting insights may not affect charges, trial or sentence. But let’s remember glass houses and stones, and keep the moral outrage in perspective, as we ponder our own transgressions and the good fortune that we don’t have a whole society coming down on top of us for each one of them.