On Wrath

There are seven things which the LORD hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.”

~Proverb 6:19 – 6:19, King James Bible

Mr. Vick, you have sparked worldwide controversy, and another addition to the Seven Deadly Sins collection.

The line “hands that shed innocent blood” was the precursor to Wrath being considered a mortal or deadly sin, but was expanded because, I suppose, a person could be an asshole without actually killing someone. But originally, according to Wikipedia, Wrath was described as “inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger…the desire to seek revenge outside of the workings of the justice system and generally wishing to do evil or harm to others. The transgressions borne of vengeance are among the most serious, including murder, assault, and in extreme cases, genocide.”

Let’s be clear here. Vick admitted to setting up, financing, and managing a dogfighting operation. Dogfighting is when two or more dogs are trained, usually through means involving beatings and starvation, to fight to the death. During the fights they literally bite and rip the flesh off each other and die slow and painful deaths, either from organ damage, blood loss, or from having their jugular severed or windpipe crushed. The under-performing dogs are often executed by drowning, hanging, electrocution or gun shot. Vick not only knew what he was financing, but enjoyed watching it, and from all accounts, participated in the execution of the dogs with his own hands.

Hasn’t he ever seen a thriller? Doesn’t he know that people don’t mind watching teenagers get picked off by the dozens, that innocent bystanders can get blown away without a single tear being shed, that even children are fair game…but let threat come to the family pet, and moviegoers will start to whimper in horror?

He released a statement today, which admitted responsibility and refuted earlier claims that he was not guilty of the charges laid.

"First I want to apologize for all the things that I've done and that I've allowed to happen…I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself, to say the least. And I want to apologize to all the young kids out there for my immature acts. What I did was very immature, so that means I need to grow up. I totally ask for forgiveness and understand as I move forward to a better Michael Vick the person, not the football player. I take full responsibility for my actions. Not for one second will I sit here and blame anyone else for my actions. It was totally irresponsible. I feel like we all make mistakes. I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions. And those things just can't happen. Dogfighting is a terrible thing and I did reject it."

Call me crazy, but I don’t see how financing something, watching it, putting money into making it happen more often, and using your own two hands to participate in it is quite the same thing as thinking it’s terrible and rejecting it, and I think it’s kind of rich coming from someone who repeatedly posed in photographs, smiling, with the fighting dogs. But the real problem for me is that he puts what he did down to “immaturity.”

Immaturity makes you date people you know are going to treat you poorly because they look good with no shirt on. Immaturity is mixing anything with Jaegermeister and calling it a shooter. Immaturity is wearing your pants with one pantleg rolled up. Immaturity is not slaughtering dogs. Michael doesn’t need to “grow up,” he needs to do some reading on the psychological profile of violent psychopaths (the three main precursors of which are bedwetting, fire starting, and cruelty to animals.) A man who can sit through a dogfight, enjoy it and want to see more of it, who can hang a dog he bred and raised with his own hands, is a little more than immature. It’s incredibly troubling to me that he would trivialize a crime of repulsive violence to the level of breaking curfew, especially in the same breath as his acknowledgment that he's a role model to children.

I also enjoyed the very subversive tactic of sending a plea to separate “Michael Vick the person” from “Michael Vick the football player.” A nifty trick designed to allow us to hate the person but to try and separate his means of income from his crime. As though a football player who earned millions of dollars by having thousands of fans, many of whom are children, and by being the endorsement face of many products doesn’t have anything to do with refraining from criminal activity. He’s trying to insinuate that while he understands that you’ll hate him for his ‘immaturity,’ his career shouldn’t be impacted. Let’s look at it this way; if Michael Vick was a politician, would we be saying, “Sure, he participated in something like that, but he makes good public policy. He shouldn’t be removed from office.” No, because he’s a football hero. Apparently, our disdain for domestic abuse, rape, animal cruelty and even murder can be lessened by a really impressive record with rushing yards. It’s sad, but it’s life, and I think anyone who expects this man to spend more than a year behind bars is a nice person, but a misinformed one.

Besides, Michael claims to have Found Jesus. His “we all make mistakes” and “I give myself up to God” and redemption talk, as ridiculous as it sounds to most of us, is usually a pretty good strategy, because it confuses the mostly atheist left wing and placates the right wing, who never get to hear about God in the media anymore. (If I were the part of the Christian right, I think I’d actually be pretty pissed off that the only people who kept finding Jesus were those who were trying to evade rehab or escape dog fighting charges, but whatever.) He’s not finished, as much as I’d like to think he was.

And I don’t mean to open a very messy can of worms, but he killed dogs. Would we be going apeshit if they were some other animal? Scary Spice’s boyfriend killed a duck with a brick, but he’s still out there enjoying his life. What if it were a fur farm? A slaughterhouse for cows? Pigs? We like dogs, and I think that’s the problem here. He picked on the Miss Congeniality of the animal world. Every meat-eater out there, myself included, is implicit in the often painful existence and death of animals, it’s a matter of fact that we can pretend isn’t the same, because it’s not dogs, and other people do it all the time. But it is the same. It’s a difference of degree, not of principle. So while I believe he's an asshole and probably a mentally sick man, let's have a rational look at the matter, not a witch hunt.

But if Wrath is having 'hands that shed innocent blood,' he’s guilty of Wrath, no matter which way you cut it, and I don’t think Jesus would be all that keen on him. If Vick did a little more homework, he’d find out that committing a deadly sin, in the eyes of the God that he’s currently trying to give himself up to, “destroys the life of grace” and is unforgivable except through confession and perfect contrition, neither of which he’s showing. That Old Testament stuff does not allow for lesser sentencing and plea bargaining; he’s probably better off giving himself over to the Judicial Branch of Georgia than to God. If he’s not careful, he’s going to face an even less pleasant reception once he checks in for eternal damnation; personally, I kind of like to think that he’ll be issued a suit made out of meat and introduced to an unforgiving pack of his former pets.

But Disney taught us that all dogs go to heaven, where, unlike the NFL, Vick probably will not be welcome. And I sure hope the poor puppies are up there right now, being loved and cared for by Helen Keller, and the kid from Lassie.

Rest in peace, you poor things. You were the only ones Vick forgot to apologize to in his speech.


For my friend R, who is a friend to all puppies and kittens, and who would probably be happy to see this guy get his ass kicked. By Johnny Cash.