4 Responses to Rôle Models

• refriedgringo says:

  16 August 2009 at 20:53:38

  There are three possible outcomes to Vick being allowed once again to play in the NFL:

  1. He again resumes dogfighting activities.
  2. He does nothing except play in the NFL.
  3. He performs charity work that supports animal shelters and rescues.

  While I certainly do not begrudge your sentiments concerning Vick, logically it would seem that one of the three outcomes are likely. My money goes down on number three. Should that happen, it is entirely likely that in the end he would have done more good than harm.

  Not that I have a poker in the fire, so to speak, I've never cared much for Vick as a person or as a quarterback. Mine is simply an observation.

  Reply
  • Daniel says:

    16 August 2009 at 22:03:35

    I understand what you're saying here, but a key part of what underlies what I am saying is that the harm here isn't simply whatever was or will be done directly by Vick himself.

    First, Vick's dogfighting programme can be viewed as a gamble. People who gamble normally factor into the decision of whtehre to gamble an awareness of that they might lose and of how much they might lose. By holding Vick's losses down, the Commissioner and the Eagles have made dogfighting a better gamble.

    Meanwhile, other parties have been generating a structure of excuse, which at times has been difficult or impossible to distinguish from claims that any objection to dogfighting is an artefact of purely arbitrary culture.

    Reply
    • refriedgringo says:

      16 August 2009 at 22:41:33

      Okay, I'll change tack here.

      For almost two decades I have known that dogfighting has taken place in the United States of America. I know people who, at one poing in their lives, were a part of that horrible industry. They no longer participate.

      In my travels, I have often times found myself relating this to people from the U.S., and they mostly do not believe me. After Vick's arrest and incarceration, I doubt that I would have any trouble convincing anyone.

      Now, letting Vick be a part of society again, keeping in mind my points above, is that it is a chance for others who were/are involved in such stupidity to get out of it. I really do understand your point, and it is entirely valid, but, as the Japanese say, the other side of the coin also has another side.

      Reply
      • Daniel says:

        17 August 2009 at 00:28:38

        But if the purpose of a sort of social pardon is to facilitate people leaving the world of dogfighting, then the pardon should be extended to some or all of those who can walk away from it, rather than to those who do not have that choice. Vick didn't walk away from dogfighting. He was caught, and he has virtually no means of returning to it.

        Reply

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