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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > May > 27 > Entry
BLOG: Michael Vick — The NAACP and Others Were Wrong
The NAACP and animal advocates like Kristy Winfrey should have kept their noses out of the “Welcome to the Neighborhood” promotion the Kansas City T-Bones had planned for Wednesday night.
The independent Northern League team plays its games 16 miles from the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., where former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is serving a 23-month sentence for not only financing the dogfighting operation at his Bad Newz Kennel, but helping execute dogs that were not good fighters. According to court records, Vick’s animals were electrocuted, drowned, hanged, shot or slammed into the concrete until dead.
To raise awareness about the plight of abused animals and draw a crowd — while giving Vick a much-deserved poke in the process — the T-Bones originally had planned to welcome the former NFL star by wearing black and white prison stripe shirts, while the visiting Gary SouthShore RailCats were going to wear something akin to the orange jumpsuits seen on prisoners picking up trash on the sides of highways. There even had been talk of relief pitchers being shuttled in from the bullpen in a paddy wagon.
While the over-the-top antics would create the buzz, there also would be a dog parade and a chance for people to adopt dogs on site from the humane society.
The NAACP got wind of this and as national spokesman Richard McIntire told USA Today’s Tom Weir: “It’s personally troubling for me. It sounds like they’re willing to uplift one cause at the expense of another individual’s human dignity. I don’t know when it became sporting to kick a man when he’s down?”
I suggest Mr. McIntire muzzle it.
Where was his indignation when the details of Vick’s atrocities came to light? No one made more sport of kicking someone who was down than the former quarterback.
To understand that in the saddest of detail, read the next few paragraphs about the plight of one of Vick’s dogs written by The New York Times’ Juliet Macur:
“A quick survey of Georgia, a caramel-colored pit bull mix with cropped ears and soulful brown eyes, offers a road map to a difficult life. Her tongue juts from the left side of her mouth because her jaw, once broken, healed at an awkward angle. Her tail zigzags.
“Scars from puncture wounds on her face, legs and torso reveal that she was a fighter. Her misshapen, dangling teats show that she might have been such a successful, vicious competitor that she was forcibly bred, her new handlers suspect, again and again.
“But there is one haunting sign that Georgia might have endured the most abuse of any of the 47 surviving pit bulls seized last April from the property of the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick … Georgia has no teeth. All 42 of them were pried from her mouth, most likely to make certain she could not harm male dogs during forced breeding.
“Her caregivers here at the Best Friends Animal Society sanctuary, the new home for 22 of Mr. Vick’s former dogs, are less concerned with her physical wounds than her emotional ones. They wonder why she barks incessantly at her doghouse and what makes her roll her toys so obsessively that her nose is rubbed raw.”
A guy who inflicted that kind of harm on animals deserves no special consideration. And he might not have gotten it from the T-Bones had not certain animal activists also raised objections about the promotion, albeit for completely different reasons than did the NAACP.
“I think it’s making a joke of it all,” said Winfrey, a Kansas City animal shelter volunteer who writes the blog, The Animal Advocate. “I think once people get there, it’s going to look ridiculous to them.”
And so the T-Bone folks — under fire from too many sides — scrapped their Vick “welcome” night. They’ll still focus on dogs at Wednesday’s game. There’ll be a dog parade and adoptable animals at their park.
“We didn’t want to offend anybody and we are sorry of we did,” T-Bones’ publicity director Tommy Thrall said Tuesday. “We simply wanted to raise awareness for a good cause.”
They would have raised a lot more awareness had the original promotion gone on. No matter how you draw the folks in — and the national media would have been all over this — they’ll end up thinking about abused dogs, and many of them might have fallen in love with an adoptable pet while there and taken it home. The more people, the more chance for adoption.
And if in drawing a crowd, they hurt Michael Vick’s sensibilities — who cares?
Not after all the hurt he inflicted.
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Comments
By cmac
June 2, 2008 9:31 PM | Link to this
I love this country….. in this country a person can commit vehicular homicide, rape, sell crack (powder or rock), human trafficking, illegal aliens, hit and run, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and credit card fraud and get probation to one year in prison. But if I kill a dog I get 2 years. In my country we eat dogs, and we have deer as pets. In my country Americans would go to jail for killing deer.By GaDove
May 29, 2008 5:11 PM | Link to this
Thank you writing this thoughtful article. I pray this country and every single writer kicks this sadistic thug while he is “down” forever. NEVER forget Gracie and all the other unknown dogs Vick killed and abused for over 7 years. If we don’t keep his heinous crimes alive, then he will get out of prison, spin a little PR, and try to return to the NFL. He sent a strong message to the community, along with the NAACP, that dog fighting is just a “mistake” that white people care about. That is wrong for the dogs, and for all the youngest Vick fans in ATL where I live. This should not be racial, but in ATL, everything is … Good Luck on the adoptions T-Bones!By Laura
May 29, 2008 12:18 AM | Link to this
This story has nothing to do with race. Being white or black…it is about ABUSE! I don’t care if Michael Vick is purple with pink polka dots. He is a vicious man! I pray he never has children to pass his behavior on to! This makes me want to puke!By GARY
May 28, 2008 12:08 PM | Link to this
tHANK YOU mARSHA FOR TELLING BLACK PEOPLE WHAT THEY “NEED TO DO”. i DONT REMEBER BLACK PEOPLE TELLING YOUR PEOPLE THAT “IT’S NOT O.K. TO HAVE SEX WITH CHILDREN”. I DONT REMEBER BLACKS TELLING WHITE PEOPLE ” IT’S O.K. TO MARRY FOUR WIVES AND HAVE SEX WITH UNDERAGE KIDS”. AND I TAKE IT YOU DONT WATCH MSNBC EITHER, THE HOW TO CATCH A PREDATOR STINGS……ALL WHITE PEOPLE….WHAT WAS THAT THING ABOUT GLASS HOUSES AND STONES?By Marsha
May 28, 2008 11:53 AM | Link to this
I agree with you Tom. The NAACP would be taken more seriously if they had spoken out and condemned the behavior that Michael Vick has admitted to committing. Wouldn’t you just know it, your blog would bring out some of the blacks who want to know who are YOU to tell them what to do? Well, when you suggest they not break the law and commit felonies, I guess this is too much for them to take. Eh? Too many blacks expect immunity due to their skin color, not equality. As for the poster who mentioned that Vick is being punished for his lack of concern for other’s sensibilities, well, that poster is in denial. Vick is being punished for more than disregarding one’s sensibilities, he TORTURED dogs for over 6 years. I think that goes beyond disregarding one’s feelings. If T-Bones charity event was to be compared to the same thing that Vick had done, this is what would have happened: He would have been starved, fed gunpowder, shot up with aggression drugs, then fought. If he lost, or performed poorly, he would then either be electrocuted, beaten to death, or hung. If he survived the hanging, then he would have had his head held down in a 5 gallon bucket of water to be drowned. IF he were a female, then ‘she’ would be fought, and once that is not viable, heck, pull ‘her’ teeth out with pliers without a painkiller, then strap her to a rape stand for vicious males to rape. Vick is a monster, he is getting what he deserves. He will be personna non grata for the rest of his life, amongst most in our civilized society.By gary
May 28, 2008 9:09 AM | Link to this
Nothing like hearing from a white man telling black people what they need to do. I wonder how many black people work with the writer? Not enough apparently or he wouldn’t have written such racist garbage.By Shelter volunteer
May 28, 2008 1:18 AM | Link to this
I can’t help but wonder if a whole lot of good would have come of people impulsively adopting dogs that they “fell in love with” during the game. Impulse adoptions are very much discouraged at the shelter where I have volunteered, and I would think that an event like this would lead to a good number of “cute puppies” being adopted by families who may not be ready to take on the responsibility of pet ownership, or who might end up taking the dog back to the shelter withing months. It happens too often. So while there might have been good intentions here, I’m not so sure about the execution.By MyRita
May 27, 2008 5:05 PM | Link to this
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Making fun of a situation could be mistaken as making light of a situation.By Klee
May 27, 2008 3:34 PM | Link to this
Not caring about the sensibilities of others is what Michael Vick is guily of. If you participate in the same manner, it puts you into the same class, of having no class.