First I need to say that Keith Olbermann stole my thunder yesterday by saying this on his show as I was working on this post.
As a dog lover and the owner of a kick ass gigantic and beautiful Great Pyrenees, I too am greatly affected by the charges leveled against Mick Vick. What he did is out of control. I'm a massive animal lover so it hurts to see any animal be abused.
But I am also very deeply saddened and a bit confused by the public outcry in this matter. There is a list a mile long of athletes that have broken the law by causing harm to human and animal alike. But for now, let's use Leonard Little to guage our respones to human life.
In 1998, Leonard Little, the Defensive End for the St. Louis Rams, got behing the wheel of his car drunk. He put the key into the ignition, turn it on and drove off, drunk. As so many like to point out, Dog fighting is against the law. So is DRIVING DRUNK.
The highly touted star athlete killed Susan Gutweiler that night. His blood alcohol level was a 0.19. This is what happened to him:
90 days in jail
four years probation
1000 hours of community service
suspended without pay for the first half of the 1999 season
Susan Gutweiler was taken from her then 15 year-old son and her husband. Leanard Little went on to get another drunk driving arrest after being pulled over for speeding. This after a SuperBowl a Pro bowl and never reaching out to the family that his actions devistated. Little has since signed a 3-year extension with the Rams.
This man who is not even close to the level of athlete that Vick is, killed a young woman, a mom, a wife, a human being driving the road toward a future of untold achievements and contributions, and the drunk driving killer behind a wheel spent half a season on the bench, and 90 days in jail.
Why is human life worth less than that of a dogs life? Believe me, I can make the argument, but in truth, it isn't. Especially when we're talking about the life of an innocent mother.
The disgusting actions by Michael Vick are indeed reprehensible. But it is just as disgusting that this much attention, this much public outrage and haterd has been leveled at someone who participated in a act that goes on everyday, all day, 365 days a year somewhere in this country. We want his head and his career. Not and or, both. All this while a defensive end gets cheers on a sack the following season, and every season since he took the life of Susan Gutweiler.
Little has stated that he has deep remorse for what happened, and I am not trying to hang him. But I think we should take a look at what we are saying to each other when we have this much distain for someone involved in a terrible act towards defenseless animals, but show "Little" interest when a defenseless human being looses their life. We need to start holding human life up as being just as important as animal life, or we're definitely headed for extinction.
I would say that there's a great deal of difference between dogfighting - an extended, premeditated series of subhuman brutality - and drunk driving - an often unpremeditated act of selfish stupidity.
Posted by: jonolan | August 28, 2007 at 02:42 PM