Beg your pardon?!

Begging your pardon in advance, but I need to get off my chest issues which many of you, by now are sick of hearing about. This past Monday, on almost every channel of my idiot box...artist's renderings of Michael Vick in court for sentencing were in heavy rotation! It's as if they were intended to reinforce age old stereotypes of the African man as "uncivilized" or as Mumia Abu Jamal noted in August of this year...the Bête Noir or black beast. It should come as no surprise then that the reports, ad nauseum on his sentencing were accompanied by stock footage of Vick's numerous "perp walks" in suits being nullified by the courtroom drawings. Artist's renderings of Vick in Black and White prison gear...seemed to celebrate the event as some sort of 'post OJ Acquittal' retribution. It is a wonder today that after Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, KS, the Civil Rights movement and Voting Rights Act... things are still reduced to questions of Black & White? It's a wonder too that the dithering shades of gray are few and far between!! Black & White assumes both figuratively and literally, that Black and White are proportionate or more specifically; equal! We are all human beings it's true but more often than not, equality of ethnicity is predicated upon numbers. Music, stage and film artist Mos Def laments in Mathematics that "It's a numbers game and somehow the numbers don't add up!" Further, it would seem that if your numbers are less than their's (the mythical 'man') that your collective political power/influence will be less than their's. BTW....according to the 2006 American Community Survey there are roughly 300 million citizens, with 221 million classified as white alone and 37 million classified as African American alone. In light of this kind of empirical data and the utitilarinist philosphy that "The needs of the many outweigh, the needs of the few"...it would seem that life will always be a struggle and games of Cat&Mouse may not always be constant but will be periodic...if your goal is to achieve anything close to the American Dream.

By all accounts, Michael Vick had achieved the American Dream and on paper, by way of contracts and endorsements, had amassed a fortune which would have enabled lives of luxury for even his children's children. Not only has he lost his endorsement deals but it's been reported that the Falcons' won arbitration to be reimbursed bonuses of nearly $20 million paid over that past three years! A pretty compelling argument can be made based on his life alone; that life for many Africans in America is a never ending series of games where the rules by which we play are on a sliding scale.

A news report in Monday's Boston Globe suggests that if Vick had been more honest, he could have gotten a lighter sentence. One I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby lied to a federal grand jury investigating the leaking of a covert CIA operatives name to the media. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison. When his appeal was rejected, President Bush promptly commuted the sentence of Libby with little if any real time served. I guess

There have been statements suggesting that Michael Vick shouldn't be allowed to play football again and earn untold wealth for his athletic talent playing the game. I believe the rules have not changed and accordingly, if he's paid his debt to society; should be allowed to play as soon as possible. Which brings me to WHEN I believe that should be:
Post Haste!!!! With All Deliberate Speed. If Scooter Libby and others associated with acts that border on TREASON are allowed to get off scot free, well then so too should someone who has done nothing any worse than the members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Two employees of PETA were tried for crimes against animals in January of this year. The organization reportedly killed nearly 14,400 animals between 1998 and 2005. The employees were acquitted of the more serious charges, so why shouldn't Vick who has reportedly pledged $1 million for the care of animals??