Michael Vick and the Multicultural America

Let me get one thing straight at the outset. Even though I am an animal lover and a conservative I don't think that Michael Vick should go up the river to the big house. I'll get to my reasons later.

It doesn't matter what, when, where, why, or how. If I recall my high school journalism correctly (and since I am getting on and I haven't replenished my supply of Ginko Baloba in a while I could be wrong) that's five of the things that need to be addressed in the first paragraph of a news story. The sixth is the one thing, in our day and age, that really matters - Who. In our society if there is a celebrity of any type involved then it automatically becomes a carnival sideshow that assails us constantly from eighty-seven different channels. Most of the time I don't pay attention. I mean who cares if Lindsay Lohan had a crappy upbringing with a father who didn't care and a Mom who not only enabled her bad behavior, but participated in it. The cast of characters may be different (and often not famous) but it is a story that is mirrored many thousands of times across our nation. I care more about the kids who don't have rehab to run to, but I know that a lot of the kids will turn out okay if they get a break or two. Some will rise heroically above their circumstances and we will never know, but they will be an integral part of our national spine (the one that is ever weakening). Who knows - maybe they will save us.

But I digress (I know, I know, I do that a lot) so back to Michael Vick. I have to admit I have been following the case with some interest. Of course everybody runs to find "experts", but with so many news outlets these days a lot of them have pretty thin credentials. I mean if a guy is a professor of cultural studies at Scoobie-Dobbie junior college in East Armpit New Jersey I'm not gonna give him a lot of credence. If he was that smart he wouldn't be floundering in some backwater - he'd be teaching shop at a vocational school somewhere. So most of these people aren't going to change my opinion, but I have found it interesting what they have to say.

What really caught my ear were the people (including Jamie Foxx who I happen to like as a performer) who said that Vick should somehow be given pretty much a pass because he grew up in a "culture" where dog fighting was somewhat acceptable. I think Jamie Foxx said (and I am paraphrasing here), "In the neighborhood where I grew up dogs were fighting all the time so you got to look on it as no big thing". I have heard that echoed by quite a few other "experts". And, thereby, lay the shoals of multiculturalism that our country will, in all probability, flounder upon. Whoopi also apparently just spouted the same rhetoric on The View and also mentioned how cock fighting was accepted in Puerto Rico. But it is a bogus argument.

I love the fact that we have so many different cultures at the base of our society. It makes life interesting, fun, and never boring. Not only the cultures, but the races who embody those cultures. I can think of nothing more depressing than walking down the street and looking at faces that are the same general shape and color as my own. I love the diversity. But I hate the fact that somehow the European sector of our society has been continually hammered into feeling guilty about not perceiving these individual cultures as more important than the American culture as a whole. That somehow we need to excuse behavior - that in America is unacceptable - because the practitioners of that behavior come from cultures where it is acceptable.

I remembered an old Quotation from Aesop - "United we stand. Divided we fall". I originally thought it was from the fable "A Bundle of Sticks" but that quotation was "Union gives strength". The "United we stand" quote was from the fable "Four Oxen and the Lion". But they both apply. I see the United States as made up of the many individual sticks of cultures. When they are all tied together they are impossible to break, but separate them and the individual sticks can be broken easily.

That is why we should not encourage or enable any culture to separate itself. Not only for the good of the American culture as a whole, but for the good of each individual culture. In this country if cultures are separated then the heart and the soul of each culture will eventually be isolated - along with the people who follow it. While the courts may force acceptance they can never change people's minds. And we should know by long, hard experience that the surest way to fear and mistrust is to encourage isolation. The US went through a lot of hard times (and it was right that it did) to come to "Brown versus the Board of Education" which struck down the whole idea of separate but equal. Now there are very vocal factions of almost every minority group that are trying to revive the concept - and often take it a step further - separate but more than equal. Personally I believe in the old "saw" - What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We will spiral down into chaos if we inconvenience a huge majority of the population in order accommodate a very small minority.

So should we take into consideration the 'culture" in which Michael Vick grew up? Should he have received a pass for his crimes because of that "cultural" influence? Absolutely not. If we did that then we would have to give Latinos who are arrested for cock fighting a pass due to cultural influences. In China they have a saying - "If it's back points toward heaven you can eat it." Should then Chinese (and possibly other Asians) be given a pass if they start cooking dogs and cats?

We can't do that. People are clamoring to come to this country. Many even come here without invitation or legal status. Then once they are here they expect (and often demand) that we give them special consideration on cultural and/or religious grounds. Being the idiots we are we allow them to "guilt" us into thinking they have a point and we acquiesce. A perfect example is the college in Minneapolis that is using tax payer money to build foot baths for Muslim students. Also in Minneapolis Muslim cab drivers have refused to pick up or drop off anyone at a bar or liquor store or if they appear to be intoxicated or are carrying any alcohol - and they are being allowed to get away with it. Minneapolis is also apparently considering demands to build private rooms in the airport for Muslims to pray (I am assuming they will have the aforementioned foot baths). It is complete idiocy.

But back to Michael Vick. When the fur first hit the fan there were a lot of Black activists who tried to float the notion that if this had been a white man there would have not been the same level of outrage. It soon became evident that wasn't going to fly -especially when the full scope of the crimes was revealed. Not only had he been raising dogs for fighting but he also had dogs killed that had not fought well. In a country of animal lovers the crimes were seen as so heinous that no matter the race of the perpetrator the level of outrage would be the same. That's when the whole "I'm not excusing it but he was raised in a culture where it was acceptable" argument started showing up. You know how I feel about that.

I said at the beginning I don not think Mr. Vick should go to jail. Now I will tell you why. There are three reasons for incarceration.

1. To protect society by removing the offender from its midst.

2. To punish the offender for their crime(s).

3. To make an example that may deter others from committing the same offense(s).

Michael Vick is not a threat to the population - either human or animal (anymore). The amount of money he has lost and the possible loss of his career and future income is certainly punishment enough. And the publicity from this incident and the outcome will serve to deter those who can be deterred. Rather I think the punishment should fit the crime. I think that he should have to wear a monitoring bracelet for the year. I think for the first six months he should be made to work at an animal welfare center where animals are brought in after being removed from people who have mistreated them. If you've ever watched the any of the Animal Cops shows on Animal Planet you know what I am talking about - where, for example, dogs have been brought in with chains that have grown into their necks. That would give him the perspective of people who go to incredible lengths to save these animals. The other six months he should have to work at a facility that trains service dogs or at an organization that takes animals to hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices for therapy. That way he could see what a positive impact animals can have on people's lives. Who knows, he might have an epiphany. If he doesn't show up for work - then toss him in the pokey.

And as a last word - about those foot baths for the Muslims. I think congress should give a big boost to the budget to build bidets for any minority or special interest group that wants them- because we aren't only kissing feet.

Later.