I try to be forgiving. I really do. I don’t think it’s particularly easy for anyone, but for those of us who’ve spent most of our adult life with a mission focus based on the worst humanity has to offer… well…for us the task of learning forgiveness is, at times, a little daunting.
I’ve found that the first step to being a more forgiving person is to not be so damn judgmental in the first place…to be more understanding and therefore remove the need for forgiveness. So, I attempt to put forth the effort to be understanding of the circumstances that people find themselves in and the predicaments, accidents and occasional atrocities that stem from those circumstances. It’s taken me 50 years to figure this out, but sometimes that asshole that cut you off in traffic is on his way to the hospital because his wife is in the delivery room….sometimes that woman who cussed you for no apparent reason at the grocery store just buried her father that morning. We never know what the circumstances are that drive the actions of the people we bump into day to day. So I try like hell to be less judgmental and give those I find conflict with the benefit of the doubt. I haven’t even come close to mastering this yet, but I’m working on it.
I’ve also found that there is one thing that I absolutely can’t understand and have no will to find a way to forgive. I cannot find it in my heart to forgive someone who abuses a position of power to do harm to the helpless and gains from it. That’s a very broad category for me. That encompasses any kind of power…physical, mental, emotional, financial, etc….and it encompasses any kind of gain…physical, mental, sexual, emotional,financial, etc. Call it schadenfreude, call it sadism…put whatever moniker on it you need to, but if you get your jollies from hurting someone weaker than you, you’re a piece of shit in my book and I’ve deemed you unforgivable, and I have neither a statute of limitations nor a possibility for parole on that…from that point forward, you’re always going to be worthless in my eyes. A lot of people would disagree with my fervor on this but, remember…I’m just telling you how I feel…not how you should feel.
The absolute lowest form of this trait which I can’t tolerate is those who abuse children. I struggle with the conundrum of the sentencing of the death penalty quite often, but I’m in favor for it when it comes to any form of child abuse. If your moral compass is so detrimentally twisted that you don’t feel some sort of natural instinct to protect the youth of your own species then you should be removed from the gene pool of that species…to me it’s that simple…and if you’re a priest or an educator you should be removed from the gene pool in very public and very spectacular manner.
I could never work in law enforcement. You can have a good reason for stealing a car, robbing a corner market or even throwing someone a beating….and I’d be more than happy to take you to jail for that. But…I’d be the one in cuffs if I caught someone abusing a child. I know that about me…and I’m okay with that.
However, that’s not why I’m writing tonight. I would hope anyone reading this already feels the same way as I do about child abuse and those last two paragraphs were just me telling Noah about the flood.
I’m writing because of the second lowest form of the trait I find unforgivable. I don’t really need to go into great detail about it…I can get my message across with two words. Michael. Vick.
I’ve been accused of treating dogs better than some people. I’ll plead guilty to those charges every time. There have been times in my life when a pair of bright eyes and a wagging tail were the only positive things I could find…so maybe I’m a little jaded on this topic. But I’ve never met a dog with a natural capacity for evil that you’ll find in some people. They can be trained to do damn near anything, good or bad….but at their core, you’ll always find a kind heart that wants nothing more than to live in peace and give unconditional love. Okay…no “maybe” about it….I’m jaded on this topic.
Dogs have instincts, there’s no doubt about it…but do ya know why a dog catches a Frisbee? They do it to please you. That’s why they sit, roll over, lay down, shake hands and fetch…because it pleases us. It’s kinda funny…but, since he was a puppy…when I smile, Chooch wags his tail. It makes him happy to know I’m happy…it’s that simple. Dogs love us so much and with such unconditional devotion that they’ll do anything to please us…and they’ll fight to the death if they think that’s what pleases us as well.
I was miffed that Vick only spent 18 months in prison. I was upset that the NFL let him back in, a little pissed off that Fox Sports now puts him in front of a camera every Sunday but I’m just absolutely fucking mortified that the NFL has decided to make him an Honorary Captain for the 2020 Pro Bowl. Exactly what the hell has he done that would allow him to hold any title with the word HONOR in it?
Eighteen months in prison…allow me put that into perspective for you. That’s about 2.5 months for every dog they found buried on his property…dogs that had been electrocuted, hanged, drowned, shot, and burned alive. Eighteen months equates to approximately 77 weeks, so he spent about a week for every abused animal they found living on his property. Interstate racketeering, failed drug tests while on bail, failed polygraph when questioned about the information he’d willingly sworn to during his plea deal and lying under oath…and the piece of shit spent less than two years in prison.
Aside from lying to the police, the court, the media and HIS MOTHER, he lied to the NFL, his coaches and Arthur Blank (Atlanta Falcons Owner) who stood by him like a father as he tried to spin his lies and point the blame at others….and the NFL let him back in, coaches and owners hired him and now he’s analyzing games on Sunday afternoons.
A man who could breed and train a dog to kill another dog on command and then run enough electricity through it to end it’s life when it didn’t perform up to expectations has made more money since he got out of prison than most of us could ever imagine…let that sink in for a minute.
Ya know…I’ve said it before…I didn’t agree with Colin Kaepernick, but I respected his right under our Constitution to voice his opinion. Was it disrespectful? Yes. Did it actually stop the beating heart of another living soul? Absolutely not. He’d make a more acceptable “Honorary Captain” to me than Mike Vick does.
I’ve watched the interviews. I’ve heard him talk to kids at ASPCA functions. I don’t buy it. I think he’s more remorseful for his personal losses than he is for the lives he used, abused, tortured and eventually took. I think the only thing he regrets is getting caught. The fact that he was bankrupt and hated by millions but could still manage to have a team of agents, lawyers and image spinners waiting to get him back on his feet the day he walked out of prison just baffles me.
Here…see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JDM4aTdPiY
I don’t ever tell anyone how to vote. I don’t try to rally people up to make political statements. But I just signed two different petitions to the NFL commissioner in an effort to stop this Honorary Captain bullshit from happening…and I figured I’d throw a reminder of the natural character of the man out there for the three people who read this….just in case a petition like this shows up in your email or your Facebook feed I wanted you to have the information fresh in your mind.