Poster Boy

(photo courtesy of AP)

*What's up everyone, this is a Good Doctor exclusive ... straight had to speak my mind on the Michael Vick case. Also, this note is LONG, people, LONG. Make a sandwich, get something to drink, or in the immortal words of Terrell Owens, "get ya popcorn ready". You already know what it is...*

Honestly, I didn’t want to say anything about the Michael Vick dogfighting case.
When he was indicted on conspiracy charges for his role in a dogfighting venture on the eve of my 24th birthday, I just wanted to see how the story would unfold, and after he plead guilty Monday, the only important thing to me was how long the former Virginia Tech standout’s sentence was going to be.
Then I came across the young fella you see in the picture adjacent to this column.
This young man is 9-year-old Jerron Lofton of Richmond, Va., and it wasn’t just the fact that he’s the same age as my kid brother that caught my attention.
It was the fact that this picture was the featured photo Monday afternoon on espn.com, a photo that depicted the scene outside of a federal courtroom in Richmond where Vick formally entered his guilty plea to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge.
My focus, though, wasn’t on the scene and the dynamics in play — well, not initially — so much as it was on this young man.
The young man seems like a revolutionary of sorts, and if nothing else, is willing to share his message — his faith — in the midst of those who might not agree with his views.
Then I thought of the nature of a child, well, my brother specifically. Kids are happy-go-lucky, kids would rather go outside and play — make friends — as opposed to carrying picket signs on a hot August day.
Which makes me wonder — who put this young man up to this?

When Vick was first indicted, the first thing that came to my mind was Pavlov — and then, conditioning.
Like Pavlov taught the fated dogs, I believe people — you, me, this young man — can be taught in a similar fashion.
The most famous example of classical, or Pavlovian conditioning, involved salivary conditioning of the fated dogs.
During research, Pavlov found that at a point, the dogs wouldn’t salivate in the presence of food, but rather, would salivate in the presence of the person serving the food.
With that, friends, I give you the media.
I believe it’s the presence of the media that has blown this case out of proportion — heck, we live in a sensationalist society that will unnecessarily run images of dogfighting, or images of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, or people suffering, or sex, or whatever images with negative or immoral content because the media knows those images will sell.
It is the media now that works as the server we salivate over, the server that we are so dependent on to get our fix of the Bad Newz Kennelz, or just bad news.
So why do I work in the media, then, knowing full well how the system operates?
Because I don’t believe that’s how it has to operate.
I believe that general news — with exception to my opinion in columns, obviously — can be offered to the masses without putting my personal spin on it, by simply reporting what’s going on and allowing folks to make a decision based on what they see and how they feel.
If that’s not what’s happening, then how can we say someone’s being fairly treated, or that justice is fairly served.
You can’t.
I could stop there, but I don’t think we should look at this case from one perspective. In fact, I dare say there are more forms of conditioning playing their part in the Mike Vick case...

The race card. It’s a wild card, yes, but one that folks are just as willing to shield themselves from as much as they are willing to wield.
A conversation I had with an African-American friend recently:

Me: We are human beings.
Me: Well, that's what you and I want to be.
Friend: Right.
Me: And we live ideally and as if there is no race ... to please God, things of that nature...
Me: ...but then race comes up.
Friend: Yes, it does.
Me: And, invariably, we see it as a factor.
Friend: Yes.
Me: Now, someone of a different race, presumably white, does the same...
Friend: Right...
Me: ...but doesn't see race. Why?
Friend: Because they are privileged ... because they are white.
Me: But aren't you and I privileged?
Me: That is the problem of race.
Friend: Yep.
Me: Race makes one group feel inferior, and the other feel superior.
Me: That's why one group acknowledges it — specifically, acknowledging their (presumed) inferiority, and the other group does not, which acknowledges their (presumed) superiority.

Having brought up this conversation, I believe folks that say the Mike Vick case isn’t a ‘race issue’ didn’t see/hear about the scene outside of the courtroom Monday afternoon, haven’t kept up with the history of sports — check the stories of MLB Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson and former UNC basketball standout Charlie Scott — or maybe those folks didn’t read the Associated Press story I read about the letters to Surry County (Va.) officials dripping with racism.

“Blacks — no matter how much money and education will always be of a jungle race!” read the handwritten, unsigned letter, postmarked Richmond and addressed to courthouse

That’s not to say that the race card hasn’t been misused by African-Americans likewise.
Race and religion are two things that should never meet, but often do — how integrated is the church you attend? — but those were the underlying, no, PERMEATING themes of the support rally that outnumbered animal rights activists Monday afternoon.
I have no problem with religion; in fact, I enjoy sharing my faith and beliefs, but I believe that there are bigger battles to be waged, more important wars to be fought than one over a man willing to plead his guilt.
Which brings me to another problem — priorities.

The problem with living in a sensationalist society is that when media outlets tell us to be WORRIED ABOUT PARIS HILTON! LOOK, IT’S LINDSAY LOHAN — SHE’S A DRUNK! MICHAEL VICK — DOGKILLER!, we tend to trivialize important matters like — new orleans is still struggling after the effects of hurricane katrina — in louisiana, the jena six continues to be a racially-charged issue — mother earth continues to suffer because of our gluttony and disregard for the environment.
But wait ... from the sky, look! PETA’s come to save us! Not far behind ... the NAACP swoops in to preserve our common interest!
Yet again ... wait. Dogs aren’t my common interest ... Al Sharpton’s desire to be in front of the camera isn’t my common interest ... in fact, I dare say that these figures, these leaders are here for their own agenda.
Agendas that are willing to make an example out of Michael Vick — for better, meaning that young athletes should take heed at the rise and fall of celebrity, or for worse — meaning we should crucify this inhumane dog-killer who’s never done a good thing in his life, that grew up in Newport News, Va. and for all intents and purposes, is nothing more to (you) than a thug.
Yes, that’s it. Let’s make an example out of him ... where we don’t agree with the verdict in the O.J. Simpson case, where we believe the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant should’ve gone to jail, where we’re tired of athletes getting away with murder and smoking weed and fornication, let’s bring this Vick to the forefront.
Yes, that’s it. Let’s make an example out of him...

“Because of the Michael Vick case, from now on, whenever an athlete does something wrong, he’s going to be (unfairly) posterized.”
I wish I could say that paraphrased quote came from a Bulldog — University of Georgia, South Carolina State or of the Silver Bluff High School variety — but the truth is, that quote came from a local assistant coach.
It’s bad enough that a young man, preferably a defensive back, misses an assignment and is the one caught in a bad spot when he’s the one left to chase an open receiver sure to score a touchdown ... and has to watch it on the news and hear about it from his friends.
It’s another thing entirely when we encourage and, at times, overhype young athletes, only to vilify and discourage them when they make mistakes, as if the mistakes we’ve made have ever been so amplified and so placed under a microscope as the mistakes of a young athlete.
Until we heed this young man’s message, until we get off our high horses, our pedestals, until we stop placing celebrities on high horses and pedestals just to summarily tear them down...
Until we change our priorities, then this young man will share the same fate as Michael Vick.
He’ll just be another poster boy.