Do Unto Others

No matter where we're from, as children we are supposed to recognize bad. Not naughty, mischievous or impish shenanigans but the stuff that is flatly off the board for being nowhere near decent, acceptable behavior. The kind of stuff that can be wrapped up in early life with the age and content appropriate distinction of bad.
No, we're supposed to be hardwired, or at least have the inate sense, to recognize that there are many, many actions a person can take that are plainly, bad; dogfighting is one of them.
The bulk of us having this Michael Vick discussion "get" that concept without benefit of a U.S. District Judge's 23-month sentence.

Yet some with not enough kibbles in their bits will suggest Michael be forced to face another human in a Gladiator-style death match, or that he be tossed into the moat with the pit bulls. Others will offer an appeal to pity because in some way -- tough childhood, hung out with wrong crowd, ad nauseum- Michael has already paid his price. There will be talk and disagreement and shouting and crying and...but his sentence is America at work.
What more should we reasonably expect save he carry his burden and hope he emerges a changed person for it?

Arthur Blank. I don't know the man, other than what most of us probably know: Home Depot, Very Wealthy, Atlanta Falcons, Loves Michael Vick. Who of us doesn't remember Franchise Michael, smiling in his wheelchair whist being rolled around the Georgia Dome's sidelines under the guiding hand and compassionate eye of Arthur Blank? Blank appeared to truly care about Vick. Must've trusted him too.

Here's Blank again on those same sidelines, on metaphorical sidelines, a few seasons down the road with no Vick to wheel about let alone watch lead the Falcons to pro football's Promised Land.
This time there's 2:24 left in ABC's nationally televised Monday Night Football game and, as the Saints close shop on a 34-14 win, a sideline camera finds Blanks in quiet contemplation, watching the field but really leagues away.

Although Vick was suspended by the NFL before this season's opener, he had been, since being drafted in 2001, the face of the Atlanta Falcons franchise: one NFC Championship loss, one NFC Divisional loss, 3-time Pro Bowl quarterback, came back from injuries, guys around him have career years, signed almost exactly three years ago to the date to $130 million of Arthur Blank's contract and bonuses.
Now, that same franchise quarterback Blank carted around these same sidelines four years earlier had been, coincidentally, earlier this same day, sentenced to 23-months in federal prison. Of all days, this ends up being the day Vick, the Atlanta Falcons franchise and Arthur Blank are featured on national television.
Safe to say this isn't what Blank envisioned last spring when looking at the team's upcoming schedule.

Play on the field was all but finished and again network puts us back on the losing sideline. Blank's look as he came back past the paparaz...rather, camera: The let-me-get-outta-here face rub, the stealthy glance, the visibly heavy sigh - despite whatever else in life he's got going right, Arthur Blank made palpable what many people unjustly wronged must be experiencing.

Am I equating the betrayal Blank must be feeling with feelings any number of people endure as they try to deal with their personal, unprovoked wrong at the hand of a once trusted someone? NO. However, watching the game and hearing the broadcast banter, observing various present parties (Blank, Falcons' then head coach Bobby Petrino, many of the Atlanta players) and their all-telling expressions and body language, hearing the water-cooler tongue-wagging the next morning be it at the office, on talk radio or via any number of media outlets, I was struck with a profound sense of sympathy for Blank. Reflecting upon what was revealed on the national stage rekindled my awareness of, not only the unwitting recipients of traumatic events but also why it is we so often wish to drone on about the perpetrator? I am not formally educated in the guidelines of justice but am, as are we all, imbued with a sense of justice. It seems that Michael Vick, he of the very bad actions, has stepped up to hear the tones of those actions and move forward toward reparation and restoration. But as seems to so often be the case in our society, the bulk of the conversation focuses on the wrong parties.

So forgive me if I'm not too chatty when you want to talk about Michael Vick. I'll be busy thinking about the people undeserving of my personal failures.