Monday, March 15, 2010

St. Louis, Michael Vick and why we are what we celebrate…

A bitch woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Pause…consider…continue.

With daylight savings time, my body thinks it’s 2 o’clock in the morning…so this early wakefulness is even more fucked up that the clock claims it is.

Shit.

Fuck it, let’s be productive…shall we?

Longtime readers know that this bitch isn’t a football fan. The only time I hear about my hometown football team, the Rams, is when I’m forced to sit through football news to get to hockey news. But, to borrow a wee bit of language from Quintin Tarantino, I am aware that there is this sport called football that is played for fun and for profit and that lots and lots of other people enjoy it the way I adore hockey.

I was a little late catching the news that the Rams may or may not be courting a certain Michael Vick. As a matter of fact, I had no clue until St. Louis Alderperson Antonio French took to Twitter last weekend with the following tweet “If the Rams pick up Vick, I'll buy season tickets. (Yeah, I said it.)”

French added... “@kailsburg Good idea. The Rams hire Vick then pay for the new animal shelter as a mea culpa. I like it.”

Blink.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

Now, this bitch isn’t about to indulge in Vick bashing.

Catch your motherfucking knee before you kick something and hurt your own damn self!

This bitch is not a Vick apologist. I’m do, however, hope that his life post incarceration is not another cautionary tale of violence and animal cruelty.

I believe people can change for the better or for the worse…people can change and, in our current prison culture, we’d do well to support programs that help them change for the better.

However…and you just had to know there was a however fixin’ to come…I’m more than a little disturbed by the dismissive attitude some are voicing toward Vick’s crimes and the apparent reason behind that dismissive "fuck it, go Rams!" attitude.

Shit, as much as I adore the St. Louis Blues…and trust a bitch, I LOVE my Blues…I wouldn’t casually dismiss the actions of a confess animal torturer/murderer just ‘cause he had serious game. Sorry, but if former Blue Matt Danton had Ovechkin skills I wouldn't be lobbying for the Blues to bring him back no questions asked. Danton, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, is making his way back onto the ice...slowly and with great care and a lot of eyes watching to see what's what...and this bitch happens to think that's the best thing for him and the game.

If I had a dollar for every time someone has actually verbalized that they don’t give a flying shit what Vick did as long as the Rams start winning, a bitch would be able to pay for that new animal shelter Mr. French tweeted about the Rams building.

‘Tis that kind of thinking that makes me think something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Given what we know about the connection between animal cruelty and domestic violenceanimal cruelty, serial killers and violence…and dog fighting in St. Louis city, a bitch would hope that my fellow residents would pause and consider before getting giddy over fielding a motherfucking winning football team.

In the wake of the St. Louis Cardinals defiant and dismissive attitude toward criticism of their hiring Mark McGwire as a hitting coach even though it’s obvious as a motherfucker that McGwire’s hitting skills were enhanced (and a bitch has to wonder what kind of advice he can offer other than to shoot up and then deny, deny, deny while cashing the hell in)…cough…a bitch finds the addition of the “We don’t give a fuck as long as the Rams win” Vick spin disturbing as hell.

We are what we celebrate.

And I’m beginning to see a very fucked up theme here.

The sad as hell thing is, a bitch thinks that there are arguments to be made for Vick…I think he could do good work in a city that could use examples of folks getting out of jail, making a good life for themselves, not downplaying but rather owning their crimes and working within the community to help young people avoid falling into the wretched shit that sent their ass to jail in the first place.

But that’s not what these Rams fans are saying…is it?

And tossing out a suggestion that the Rams build a shelter isn’t clever…’tis so flippant that it is the very definition of insulting.

Sigh.

Yeah, we are what we celebrate…

…and that’s what worries the hell out of me.

6 comments:

D. said...

Ah, yes. "The ends justify the means." I can remember that sentiment being the hallmark of dictators and such. I'm not exactly proud that that worldview has filtered down to average Americans; that's what gets used by the government to justify torture.

I often mutter that having a winning sports team does wonders (at least short-term) for that region's mental health; but I also don't think employing known (and unrehabilitated) Bad Actors to achieve that goal is worth it.

My $0.02.

Unknown said...

Great post Shark Fu! As an avowed cat and dog rescuer, I really have a hard time wrapping my mind around thoughts of the people that ignore the heinous crimes committed by Mr. Vick, in favor of his footbally skills.

And you have hit the proverbial nail on the head reminding folks about the ties between other types of sickening violence and animal abuse.

Thank you so much. All the abandoned and/or formally abused pets in my house salute you woman! ;)

LisaMJ said...

Interesting b/c Philly (which is so not the city of brotherly love, despite the literal translation of the name) had the initial opposite reaction. Fans swore up and down they'd cancel their season tickets, return whatever tix they already had for games NEVER GO TO AN EAGLES GAME AGAIN! And it was all BS, my MOm even tried to score some much coveted Eagles Redskin tickets shortly after the bru-ha-ha and the game was still sold out, not a soul returned their tix. I don't live inthat area anymore but was in town when the story hit and btwn the comentary in the Philly Inquirer, the local news stations and all of my many friends still in the area and their outraged FB statement, not a thing happened to the Eagles and their fan base is in tact. Then again, my reaction to the reaction was that if it hadn't been a black player who'd done it, I doubt we'd have heard as much about it nor would he have gotten jail time. I mean especially after the Philadelphia Phillies player beat up his wife in public and got no repercussions, some other player who allegedly raped a woman and recently had more rape allegations thrown his way. I love animals and all but something about his treatment when compared to what happens when white players do some serious shit had me very suspicious.

Shark-Fu said...

LisaMJ...

I feel you on the treatment tip, but I fear that we get so caught up in that side of it that we neglect to explore and discuss what happened within our community. It's understandable, but not something I indulge in. We have a violence problem in our community...a violence against animal problem that simply CAN NOT be explored separate from its connection to violence against women, children and human beings.

So, yeah...I think Vick got more attention when he broke the law and fought, tortured and killed dogs.

But...Vick broke the law, fought, tortured and killed dogs.

I shudder to think of the pathology of his home life...and I sincerely hope he got some treatment...but our reluctance to call this mess what it is and act accordingly would be even more disturbing if i didn't suspect society to be suffering from group post traumatic stress syndrome.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line, he was put in jail and paid his dues. He should be allowed to continue with his life. I feel we make people pay and pay in this society. Yes, he did something incredibly wrong but he did not get away scot free with it. He has paid. He should be forgiven and allowed to make the amends he is making and have his career and his life. I think any one of us would want the same for ourselves if we had made such huge errors of judgement and gone so far astray.

kailey said...

oh hey. i'm @kailsburg.

thought you might like this post i wrote in the same vein:

http://stlsocialites.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/animals-are-people-too/

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