Tuesday, August 28, 2007

You've been blinded...PLEASE!!!

Fellow blogger weighs in on the Michael Vick racism conspiracy. In response, as an Anglo Saxon female, a minority and a southerner, get a grip. I can't and won't attempt to speak for everyone, only myself. If this case involved Hillary Clinton, Sandra Day O'Connor, Larry Bird or the now deceased Pope Paul, I would feel the same way. To say that the moral outrage, in this case, is solely based on the color of one's skin is ridiculous. However there is one racial issue out there. Whereas dog fighting started as a rural sport in the south, it has become an emblem of the hip hop culture. Thank the rappers and gang bangers for that. Tough dogs, mean dogs, dogs with attitude have become a status symbol for those who wish to portray themselves as the tough guy. It has become deeply embedded in inner city gang culture and is heavily marketed by advertising moguls who wish to target their core group. It is very easy to blame the race, sex, sexual preference card when looking at these cases. It's also very destructive. If I blamed every promotion I didn't get, every raise I was denied and everything I hoped for that didn't come my way on the fact that I was a female, "well that's just the way things go," I would be a very miserable person without any lucrative employment. With dogs we say it's the deed not the breed. Can we not say it's the deed not the race, or the skin color? So why the focus on Vick? Quite simply, dog fighting is an underground sport. To find a well established ring, fronted by a millionaire that kids revere, is ground breaking!!!! It doesn't matter whether that the star is black, white or Hispanic. This rarely happens in this underground sporting world. Is dog fighting a black sport? As a southerner, who grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood, I can't say. I can say in inner city neighborhoods, it has become a trend. Countless news articles, the A.S.P.C.A, and the Humane Society all attest to this. The core issue in this case is the rose colored glasses worn by the management at the NFL, NBA, NBL, the music industry and Hollywood. As long as we continue to laugh off errors made by our star studded icons, we tell our children that any indiscretion is fine. Well at least if you make a six figure income. Michael Vick's apology could have been Paris Hilton's. I am not any happier with the fact that she'll still get roles and get the book deal. However she didn't brutally murder dogs. Speaking of which, Michael says he murdered six to eight...what he can't remember? Most serial killers can, but Michael is having a mental block? What gives?!!! By the way, your hero Sharpton makes this case. As to hunters and PETA? Not a huge fan of both. However, the few hunters I know only kill what they can eat. This is what any predatory carnivore does. They do not torture, mutilate and they do not ask their prey to fight each other for their own enjoyment. Most hunter's I know share their kill with the property owners of their hunting grounds as well, another common pack behavior. There are some hunters that hunt merely for sport/entertainment/a trophy for their wall and I find that detestable. Peta gets a lot of flack for euthanasia. Understand, I am not for taking any one's life unnecessarily. But what kind of life does the unadoptable pet live? It lives a life in a kennel with little exercise. Eventually, the dog goes mad. Have you ever had a loved one ask you to pull the plug, because their life no longer has meaning or value? I have and you can see the same desperation in the eyes of some of these dogs in no kill shelters. I would rather see them put to sleep humanely, than live that kind of life! So sorry, your arguement doesn't sway me.

1 comment:

Toni said...

Let's stick to the 'deed'. Consider the British and their foxhunts as another outdated sport, yet they're the big kahuna's on animal rights?
One headline read 'Vick says he needs to grow up'. Oh please.

Did he do it for the money or for the sport? Did he start this hideous business because he had bills to pay and kids to feed or because he got a charge out of it?

There are many people with bills and kids who don't stoop to this level.