Mistake or bad choice? and thoughts about the South

Okay, so the big sports story of the day is the "conditional reinstatement" of Michael Vick to the NFL --- provided there's a team that will take him. More on that in a second......

First, though, I was reading a commentary on MSNBC, and the author more or less suggested that it would have to be a Southern team that would take him ...... because after all, Southerners are more likely to shrug off dog-fighting as "boys being boys." Excuse the (multiple expletives deleted) out of me, but Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, dude????? Now, I realize there are Southerners (and I know a few) who would shrug it off -- kind of like saying, "That's just racing." But most of the ones I know would be highly incensed by the very idea. I knew a few "good ol' boys" when I was in high school -- heavy into outdoor sports (meaning, hunting and fishing). Most hunter/fishers I know would take better care of their hounds than any other animal. Hell, some of them might even treat their dogs better than they do their wives or girlfriends. The very idea of breeding an animal simply to fight for man's sport would be viewed as irresponsible at the mildest, unredeemable at worst.

Now, you all know I'm a dog lover -- and almost all other animals, save for the creepycrawlies and especially the slitherers. So what Vick did disgusts me to absolutely no end. The fact that he remains practically unrepentant is what sticks in my craw. He has yet to stand in front of the media and admit that he bred dogs to fight, bred them to kill, and killed the slower performers. He allowed female dogs to be tied to "rape stands" so that they could not get away, all in the name of breeding a stronger, meaner dog with a worse killer instinct. And he LIED about it to the federal investigators. And what does he call all those things? "Mistakes."

Hell no. A mistake is when you go off and leave the iron on at home. A mistake is an error in a formula on a spreadsheet. His actions could at easiest be labeled "bad choices." He has yet to own those choices. He has yet to say, "Yes, I chose to get involved in this horrendous thing. I chose to ally myself with guys I knew growing up who have no futures. I bankrolled the whole thing so they could roll with me, since I was making the big bucks. I thought I was above the law and could get away with it .... I figured they could never trace it back to me." Man up, Vick. Man up.

While I'm at it, I'm still pissed about the article assuming that Southerners are all (still) inbred racists who love nothing more than bloodsport. You know, I was thinking about this the other day with the whole Dr. Gates thing at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Where have most of the racial incidents of the last 20 years occurred? That's right. NOT IN THE SOUTH. Rodney King and later Reginald Denny? Los Angeles. I can't think of the guy's name, but it was the guy shot 41 times -- in New York City. Dr. Gates' arrest? New England. Folks, those places are way above the ol' Mason-Dixon line. Is there still racism in the South? I wouldn't doubt it. But I get so tired of the stereotype that all white Southerners are born to hate.

I'd better get off the soapbox. I'll stay here all night, otherwise.