Dog lovers find it difficult to like Michael Vick, the pro quarterback who got himself so deeply involved in so-called "professional" dog fighting that he owned fighting dogs, often killed wounded and healthy dogs by electrocuting them, by hanging them or drowning them, shooting them, fatally maiming them, or just throwing them against a wall. He participated in the entire ugly scene, gambling along with the rest of the goons who participate in this "sport," where dogs are expected to fight until one of them dies. Quite often, the "winner" has to be put down, too. Vick was arrested, did his time, then just the other day, President Barack Obama told the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles (Vick's team) that he was glad to see they were giving the felon, Vick, "a second chance."  It looks like the president chose the wrong felon though.

The one thing that made Vick's crime even more horrendous than most of its type is that Vick, once the owner of "Bad Newz Kennels," often killed dogs before they even had a chance to fight, and he liked to do the killing himself. He thought he could  tell if a dog was a good fighter or not without actually seeing it fight, and if he determined that it couldn't, he would personally kill the dog. He was  killing dogs and betting on them right up until the month he was arrested. Who knows how many suffering dogs he has killed - some would say "murdered" - with his bare hands. It is known he was involved in this illegal "sport" for several years before  he was caught.

So he did his 18 months sentence, many people, even fans, thinking he got off too easily. And he was released right back into the waiting arms of the NFL. As part of his sentencing he has to do public service commercials for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and groups like PETA. Knowing what he has done to animals, it is difficult to watch these PSAs.

Many people were still seething about what they considered his light sentence, when President Obama came out the other day with a statement to Vick's current team owner saying in so many words that he was glad to see Vick getting a second chance as a felon and to see that he was doing well. Sometimes one is almost pushed to wonder if Obama has a special team in the field whose job it is to seek out circumstances in which the president can make remarks that most people would consider offensive. They came up with gold this time.

First of all, Michael Vick is not your typical felon. Your typical felon, released from prison does not make millions of dollars a year; he makes nothing and most won't give him a job. Recidivism rates will not be improved by a single multi-millionaire felon like Vick. If the President wants to improve the futures of typical men and women released from prison, he first has to increase their chances of getting and keeping a job. They are not super-star quarterbacks; they are quite often laborers, without specific skills, who have just been released from an institution that has taught them nothing because the whole idea of "rehabilitating" criminals to prepare them to succeed in civilian life was thrown in the trash can many presidential administrations ago. Indeed, you almost have to be Michael Vick to become "sucessful" following a stint in a Federal lockup.

So here we have the president basically congratulating the owner of the pro football Philadelphia Eagles for hiring a convicted felon like Vick and giving him a "second chance." Is the president dimwitted? Does he really believe the Eagles hired the football super star just to give him a "second chance?" Does he believe the Eagles would hire  Vick if he was a virtually unknown linebacker? It also looks like the usually race-savvy president may have slipped up on this one.

And that is other thing that is worrisome about Obama's shout-out to Mr. Vick -  the racial questions it raises for people who already believe Obama is a racist. For example, let's say Mr. Vick was not an African American superstar, would Obama have even mentioned him at all? You can bet there are people out there asking that question. And if they are not asking, they are wondering. It must be remembered racism, as defined by author Desmond Morris, who has written more on the subject of racism than most sociologists, is the practice of paying positive or negative attention to anyone based solely on the color or their skin.  As already mentioned above, would Obama have expressed such enthusiasm over a white player if he were a felon? I do not believe Obama is a racist, but he should be more aware of what he says before he says it. 

There is still another reason Michael Vick is not a typical felon. Vick's crimes have a certain psychopathy - torturing animals - that one associates with serial killers and pedophiles. It in not your "typical" crime. It is the crime of a sociopath. In fact, it is at least the crime of a sociopath.

There are still other questions for professional sports in general. How can Pete Rose be banned from professional baseball forever and kept out of the Baseball Hall of Fame for gambling, even if it was on his own team on a few occasions, while Michael Vick has owned and operated a gambling business, whose side operation was the slaughtering of perhaps 100 animals? There are other pro players who broke regulations by using various performance enhancing drugs, whose reputations will never be rehabilitated.

And yet here is Michael Vick, a man who used to enjoy killing dogs, and, if things go right for him this year, he has a shot at being named the Most Valuable Player of the NFL Super Bowl. And what the heck, President Barack Obama thinks it is just wonderful     

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• « A Child of Misfortunes - Part Three - Letters Two and Three
• Rep. Spencer Bachus, the Banker's Representative »

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