The Parable of Saint Ookie

Between recent episodes of Keisha Cole: The Way [Her Deplorably Undignified Family] Is and [Really?] Fantasia For Real, I was introduced to The Michael Vick Project, a documentary series airing soon on BET. (Pregnant pause.) So far, one commercial sound bite suggests the former illegal dog fighting facilitator turned Philadelphia Eagles quarterback may need “a lot of psychiatric help.” Series producers say the show will follow Vick as he searches for his own “personal truth.” And, according to Tweedle Vick himself, the show is designed to change how we see him. In fact, he’d like us to “get to know [him] as an individual”…through reality television.

Now, it should go without saying that Vick’s vision of verity, as evidenced by his acquaintanceships and extracurricular activities, bears need of calibration. But, since he’s been effectively crucified for institutionalized dog abuse, maybe we should all join Saint Vick on his journey toward truth.
 
Let the pilgrimage begin at our arbitrary take on animal cruelty: 1.) it’s not okay to abuse the beasts we want to think love us, because we’ve engineered them to appeal to our social aesthetic. 2.) The rest are just animals.

Yet, there is a difference between folk tradition and cosmic virtue. Just because our culture contrived the canid to be worthy of health insurance and PBS programming makes it little different from the livestock we regularly consume. (Actually, cattle have physiological need to ingest their vomit repeatedly, and galliforms don’t gobble their own feces.)  If Ringmaster Emeritus Vick is a felon, we are all hypocrites. If we abhor animal cruelty, we could certainly stand to be a bit more thorough. Let’s not act like we don’t know what dubious industrial food manufacturing practices bring those unnaturally voluptuous chicken breasts and thighs to our local one stop shop. And, let’s stop pretending every bovine in the United States is a Happy Cow.

If what PETA spokesman Dan Shannon said is true (“People who abuse animals don’t deserve to be rewarded.”), Michael Vick’s story simply gives the rest of us hope.