Outrage Not Created Equal
I’m sure none of you reading this blog have escaped the Michael Vick media blitzkrieg surrounding his recent indictment on dog fighting charges. The story has been all over the news outlets and has been explored from many angles: Vick’s legal prognosis, the appropriate reaction for the Atlanta Falcons and Commissioner Roger Goodell, and even some racial implications for the city of Atlanta. When I first heard of the indictments, I had a different reaction; why am I so outraged?
It seems that the Vick case has released a special sort of outrage especially when compared with other criminal investigations. Adam “Pacman” Jones and his surrounding legal problems didn’t nearly receive the same amount of coverage as Vick. Even though I was young, I don’t remember the Ray Lewis murder case getting near the level of coverage that Vick has received.
Why is it that NFL players who have been connected with paralyzing a man or even killing another can’t garner the same hype as a player who has allegedly brutalized dogs? When thinking about it, several different things came to mind. Maybe we as a public see dogs and animals as being wholly more innocent than we humans. We see our own faults and readily see the failings of our race, making the loss of human life more tolerable. Maybe the bombardment of negative news has desensitized us. Maybe, like many propose, video game, movie and TV violence has left us quite numb to the prospect of loss of human life. The difference in outrage is probably a combination of some of the things mentioned above and many other things left unmentioned.
I’m not trying to say that I wasn’t outraged by the dog fighting indictments or that people should be less outraged relative to the many other cruelties we hear about. On the contrary, being a pet owner, I was tremendously outraged by the allegations and want swift and severe punishment for Michael Vick if the allegations are true. What I lament is that I cannot become more outraged when I hear about murder and other crimes against humanity. When I watch the evening news talk about a local murder, I want to have some empathy for the family and pay it more than passing glance and thought. Perhaps if we valued human life as much as we value the lives of pets, we would see less crime and evil acts. I hope that we can learn from the Vick case, that we can understand why we’re so outraged and try to become a people who respect all life, animal or human.