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Waking Mike Vick
By Amin
Sharif
There is old
adage that goes something like this, “The younger
generation knows the price of everything and the
value of nothing.” Nowhere is this adage more in
play than in the case of Mike Vick. Above the cries
of crucifixion and betrayal, I find myself feeling
neither rage at nor sympathy for Mike’s plight. For
me, Mike’s plight is simply symptomatic of the times
in which we live. He allowed himself to be seduced
by the notion that money exempts sports heroes and
celebrities from the rules by which more mortal
beings have to contend with every hour of their
lives. He made of himself someone who had no
problems placing his own priceless black manhood,
integrity and livelihood in jeopardy for the most
spurious of reasons—dog fighting. In doing so, it
could be argued that Vick has forfeited his right to
be considered a “man” in the true sense of the word.
There will
undoubtedly arise the plaintive cry that this author
is being entirely too hard on Mike. It was, after
all, the charge of fighting of dogs not humans to
which he admitted guilt. It was a cruel affair but
certainly not egregious enough to deprive a man of
his liberty and livelihood. But, such cries are
easily silenced when we consider that a few decades
ago white men defended throwing black men into the
pit under the same reasoning. Anyone who has read,
“The Invisible Man” knows this.
Anyone who has
been raised below the Mason-Dixon Line knows that
black men were lynched and black women raped merely
because they were considered sub-human. Just listen
to the lyrics of Strange Fruit sung by Billie
Holiday if you still have doubts about what I’m
saying. And after all, one of the unique
characteristics of our humanity is the ability to
extend that humanity to not only other human beings
but to non-human being as well. The gas ovens of the
Nazis, the lynch rope of the South, the camps of Dafur are all the results of our abandoning this
unique ability.
Again, there
are those who will argue that abstract moral
arguments such as those presented above are
meaningless when confronted with the social
environment that produced Mike Vick. Yes, there were
serious problems in his family. But, Mike was not
fighting dogs in the abandoned houses of the urban
ghetto. Mike was above all that. He was rich and
stood to become even richer if he had just done the
sensible thing. Ghetto sports should have been the
furthest thing from his mind at this point in his
career. That he even considered fighting dogs says
that abstract arguments about morality may have been
precisely what Mike needed to engage in before he
threw his career away.
Now Mike has
the certain and concrete reality of a prison
sentence looming before him. His team number will
be exchanged for the one printed on a plastic wrist
band that he will wear until he is released. He will
awake when told to, he will lie down when ordered,
and he will eat from the same trough as the
pedophile, the street dealer, and the gang banger.
Then, one day the door of his prison will swing open
and his real problems will begin. And, Mike will
have to face the uncertainty of life as an ex-con.
What will make things all the more difficult for
Mike will be that he will always be aware of the
heights from which he fell. He will come to know, as
we all do, that the worst wound of all his
self-inflicted.
Still there
may be some hope for Mike if he is man enough to
take his medicine. He can go into the joint and
strip himself of all pretensions about who he is. He
can trade the illusion of a superstar for his own
humble humanity. If he does so, Mike will emerge a
man. But, if he chooses to be seduced by joint
prestige, then he will certainly fall into a hellhole
from which he will never escape. Simply put, Mike
can bury the past or bury himself. But that is up
to him.
Just a tip,
Mike. Save your jailhouse wristband. Carry it with
you every day. Look at it often. Consider what it
symbolizes. I say this as one who knows that the
road ahead will be perilous for you. But the
destination is certain when we act as men.
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posted 6 September 2007 / update 2
July 2008 |
