Dogs of War
July 23, 2007
(Picture of Mr. Noam Chompsky)
Last Wednesday, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury for illegal dogfighting. The pictures weren’t for the faint of heart. It seems as if in the games Vick refereed, the loosing dogs were hung by trees. That is, if they managed to live that long.
If the allegations are true, this of course is disgusting. Truth in advocacy here: I’m a pushover for dogs, and I have two of them at home. The thought of one of their cute loving faces mangled by Pitbull or Rotweiler boils my blood. You don’t need to be a robe-wearing pacifist to concur with Ghandi on the subject: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
However, something even more disgusting is at foot here; truly an even greater marker of the moral progress of the nation: the continuing appeal of racism.
Talk-radio and the blogosphere practically exploded with calls for Vick to hang from a tree himself. A sample culled from a simple Google search last Friday:
- “Someone should take him and hang him from a tree.”
- “If it were up to me, I would put Michael Vick in a pit with some dogs and see how he mother fucking likes it.”
- What if we hung the Atlanta Falcons the next time they loose a game?”
- “Well, he is from the South after all.”
These are just some of the more printable reactions. Needless to say, such comments can only be taken in context.
The context of advocating hanging a black man from a tree.
The context of sicking dogs on a black person.
The context of the south.
The context of war. What does war have to do with it?
On the same day Vick was indicted at least 103 Iraqis were killed by American forces in Iraq and the death toll for American service mean reached 3,632. Beyond the normal alternative media outlets that note these things, discussion was scarce.
Vick creates reprehensible deed against man’s best friends. The cyber gloves come off and suddenly thousands of people have a pass to advocate lynching. The War Without end take the lives of more Iraqis and Americans and…
You can hear a pin drop in the far corners of cyberspace.
If convicted, Vick may, and should, spend quite a few years in prison. Yet the true dogs of war seem headed towards comfortable retirements at the Bohemian Grove–a quiet indictment of the moral progress of this nation.
