I heard on the news today that Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for the part that he played in the dog-fighting fiasco that I wrote about some time back.
I'm curious: I have my opinions about how suitable this is as "punishment", but I want to know what you think. Comment, if you will; let me know, your thoughts.
Paul Green, Jr.
Monday, December 10, 2007
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7 comments:
Not NEARLY enough time.
He's a sick person.
It's a dog... and my blog lets everyone know how much I love mine. But when rape & murder & carjackings and all that, goes unpunished... I hardly think it's fitting that a man be JAILED for abusing and killing animals.
If society ostracizes him for his actions.. so be it, but to jail him and ruin his career, that's too much.
I'm sure there is some place in scripture that states that it's ok to kill an animal "cuz it's just a dog". Come on people this guy is sick and his "career" is nothing important anyway, just an over paid slug that happens to be good at handling a pig skin... IF he couldn't play ball, would you even care what happens to him??
True, a lot of people go unpunished (for now) for crimes that are much worse, but NOT punishing Vick won't change that...
Pj, your so good at stiring things up! Good job. Love your blog!
Anonymous, I'm sure it's easy for you to confuse moral law with today's legal system (hence your reference to scripture), but let's face it... Scripture has NOTHING to do with our court rulings today. So while, morally and biblically, what he did may be reprehensible, let's face it... Michael Vick was made into effigy over this fiasco. Is it illegal? YES! But the other 4 guys who were arrested were even MORE involved, yet because they "turned states" they get off with parole. How is that Justice? Does Justice say "Let's make an example of the rich black man with the "unimportant career"?? It obviously does.... but it shouldn't
My reference to scripture was directed at what seemed to me to be a "devil may care" attitude toward animals, not at Vick or the legal system. And, no I'm not an animal rights weirdo. And, I'm not trying to argue that killing a dog is equal to taking a human life and should therefore be punished in the same fashion; that would be ludicrous. I just think that any one who can be that cruel to anything is a very very scary person and should be locked up so they can't hurt anything else.
I do agree with you though; the legal system is extremley unfair, they should have put all of them away for a very long time.
Did they make a example out of Vick? Maybe, but even if they did, in my worthless opinion, he still didn't get all he deserved.
Sorry... I guess we shall just have to agree to disagree. Been fun though... :)
I didn't mean to imply a "devil-may-care" attitude at all... In fact I hinted towards my feelings about animals by commenting about the love I have toward my own dog.
However, have you ever watched a young boy with a frog? I've seen young (5 years old) boys kick frogs, stomp on frogs, microwave frogs, throw them, etc... and the same goes for cats. Something in boys makes them throw rocks & shoot BB guns at small animals. I did it, and I know numerous people of varied backgrounds who have done the same. Should those boys be "locked up" because of their cruelty to animals?
We are not talking about "young boys" here. But, since you asked, no I don't think they should be "locked up"; I think they just need to be taught strongly that this kind of behavior is wrong.
You make mention about varied backgrounds--I believe evil is evil everywhere. In some places it is just more tolerated then others for some strange reason, or, there is just plain ignorance. May I use the extreme example of Cannibalism? Should we over look the fact that cannibals eat people just because it is "the way" they do things in that part of the world? It has been argued that we should over look Vicks doings because, that's just the way things are where he comes from. I never knew that ignorance was a valid excuse...At least; it has never worked for me. I believe most people know when thier actions are wrong; they just choose to ignore it.
I think we both agree that this behavior is horrible. What I think we may never agree about is that this is all about greed and sports-- all for the love of entertainment.
I'm curious as to what you think would have been a "fair" punishment for Vick? Unfortunately any punishment he receives will probably do nothing to enhance his character. And, that's very sad...
Please except my apology for misunderstanding your attitude towards animals. They just "seemed" to contradict your feelings about Vicks punishment. But, then it is so hard to really express ones true feelings on these posts.
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