In politics you always hear about flip-floppers, about how important it is to have a consistent track record on a particular subject, and to stick with your convictions. If a politician should do one thing ten years ago, and then do the opposite today, it becomes a point of attack for his opponents.
The thing is that I think the ability to change your mind is a virtue, not a black mark. Whenever I have a powerful initial thought about a subject, and later find myself thinking it over and deciding that my feelings were perhaps misguided, it makes me feel really good. Good because I know that as long as I’m willing to feel strongly about something and then feel differently at a later time it means that I’m still growing as a person. It means that I’m willing to admit that I was wrong, and there’s not much better for the soul than admitting you were wrong and actually believing it.
The inability to change one’s mind causes so many problems in the world. You start to believe in things not because logic and critical thought tells you to believe in them, but instead because these things are something that you once believed in, so therefore these beliefs must be defended. The large majority of passionate debates that you see on TV probably involve people who are stuck in this vicious circle.
Recently the Philadelphia Eagles signed Michael Vick. For those who don’t know, Vick was implicated in and prosecuted for running an illegal dog fighting ring. He admitted to not only breeding dogs for fighting, but also for brutally murdering dogs that lost these fights. He was convicted of the charges, and was sent to prison for 18-24 months or so.
So I’m from Philadelphia, and I root for the Philadelphia teams (although I must admit I’ve become less interested in sports than I was in the past). My initial feeling was that now I can’t root for the Eagles anymore, because how can I root for a guy who did such horrible things. For those who were around me when I made these claims, they can attest to the passion behind these feelings.
After sobering down and getting past the initial shock, I realize that I believe it’s wrong of me to hold this grudge against the man. Michael did some horrible things, but one of the most beautiful things you can do is to forgive someone who has done something wrong. There is no evidence that Michael still believes that torturing and killing dogs is an acceptable behavior. Perhaps he does, maybe he’s just putting on a charade for everyone, but the truth is we don’t know that. As long as we instinctively believe the worst about someone, without extremely good cause, I think we are doing damage to our soul. Michael may not be the same Michael that he was two years ago, so why should we still treat the current Michael as though he committed those same sins? The person that we hate and chastise today may be a person that cannot imagine ever doing the horrible things that he did, and so it seems that our anger may be misguided.
We live in a society that often does a very poor job of showing forgiveness. If you get convicted of a felony, there are often extreme penalties that follow you around until the die you day. You will have trouble finding jobs, you may not be able to vote, you may not be able to live in certain areas. Also if you later get convicted of a very minor crime, the sentences will invariably be much higher. I can’t tell you how often Susan has had to defend some guy for a crime that would normally carry a penalty of 0-12 months, but instead because he did something wrong 15 years ago (ie something nonviolent like selling drugs), he’s facing an almost certain 15 years sentence.
We all understand that dog fighting is wrong and we understand that it’s wrong to kill dogs. I think the point has been made to the world many times. I don’t think we need to constantly persecute Michael at every single football game as a reminder to everyone about how bad it is to kill puppies. When it all comes down to it, it will make us happier people to say “you know what Michael, if you say you’ve changed, I believe you and because you are a completely different person than you were when you committed those horrible acts, I’m ready to treat you just as I would any other member of society.” I think that forgiving someone is such a precious gift that in the long run it will make everyone involved happier and anytime you have a good chance to do so, it will raise your spirits to go ahead and do it.
PS- I know I expressed some strong feelings here. If you still hold a grudge against Michael Vick and don’t think he should have this job, I understand. I wasn’t trying to lecture anyone else, I was mainly writing this to speak to myself. It’s just that in order to properly express my thoughts it’s necessary to sometimes write in a lecture-ish tone.
Eloquently put- and no, it didn’t come off as lecture-ish. Forgiveness is not something you hear too much of these days, unfortunately.
Well put. My main gripe was that the Eagles got Michael Vick & not my Detroit Lions
….(although I am no longer a rabid sports fan as I once was, aging does that to a person I guess).
I know what Vick did was extremely wrong and I am not trying to defend him, but I find it absolutely ludicrous when you cannot put your own dog down “Old Yeller-style”, without some jail-sentence penalty. You are expected to go to the vet and spend $50-$100 for a vet to euthanize your dog when the cost of a bullet is about a dime and instant. Yet if you were to be caught doing this to your family pet (whom you love) you would be charged with animal cruelty.
I find the judicial system an utter joke when Vick did the time he did for killing animals & Donte Stallworth killed a man while driving impaired and received 30 days in jail & 10 years probation…FOR KILLING A MAN, not an animal. Wow, what a country, eh?
Regardless of whether or not you can or should be able to euthanize your dog at home, that is clearly not what was happening in the Michael Vick case.
I know, I know, I kind of went off on a couple of different tangents there. The main point I was trying to making b4 I went off on my euthanasia rant, is that Mike Vick, while what he did what horrible, deplorable, & unspeakable has done his time, while another guy (Stallworth) killed a human being while driving drunk and served 24 days in jail, while Vick served 23 months for killing dogs.
My point was is an animal’s life now more important than a human beings life?
I don’t think it’s nearly as simple as you are making it out to be. In order to claim that an animal’s life is being treated as more valuable than a human’s life, the crimes against each would have to be of a similar nature with similar intent.
In one case you had someone who intentionally tortured, manipulated and brutally killed many creatures.
In another case you had someone do something irresponsible and illegal, but clearly with no intent of causing anyone harm.
Irregardless of whether one sentence was too harsh or the other sentence wasn’t harsh enough, these situations are not comparable for many reasons. One party consciously and intentionally caused suffering and pain while the other did so accidentally, albeit helped due to the fact that he irresponsibly and illegally decided to drink while driving.
Also sentences around the nation vary greatly for different crimes for many reasons, such as the difference between judges, juries, state laws, defense lawyers and etc. It’s a bit unscientific to take exactly two cases, compare the results, and determine that this is the standard. There are plenty of times where the drunk driver would have received a significantly harsher sentence than the animal cruelty suspect.
I could easily find a situation where someone has been put in jail for decades or even for life for selling marijuana, and also find someone who was in jail for just a few years for murdering someone in cold blood. Can I now cry that selling marijuana is worse than murdering someone? It’s just two cases out of thousands that happen each year.
I just find it annoying that there is so much talk about animal rights and so little comparably about prisoner’s rights, how they’re mistreated in jail and how unfairly hard it is to get a job after they get out.
That’s why after reading up a little on the issue, despite not being a football fan at all, I’m in favor of him being on the team.
Also from a purely practical POV, there will be more $$ for animal rights in Philly because of him. I’ve already heard more animal rights awareness ads on the Philly radiowaves lately. I wonder if the protesters ever thought about that- that if they got what they wanted it could actually harm animals rather than help them.
Penn Jillette really put this subject into perspective when speaking about the attitude(s) taken towards Vick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vVAQ2VGvdM&feature=channel