Michael Vick, 60 Minutes and restitution
Michael Vick sits down with 60 Minutes
I’ve always understood restitution to involve some kind of satisfying payment for wrong done, a recompense if you will for obstructions that we commit. It’s the kind of concept you teach kids and absorb yourself because for thousands of year taking responsibility for mistakes has been a virtue. The laws of the United States are even shaped around this notion that you will pay your debt to society for as long as you owe it. Enter Michael Vick, now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, as he was interviewed by CBS Sportscaster James Brown.
A remorseful Vick answered tough questions about his dog-fighting operation that was responsible for the gruesome treatment of animals. He blamed himself and not the culture he grew up in. He expressed a desire to establish himself as a voice against animal cruelty in Philadelphia working with the Humane Society. But restitution may still be evasive.
I’ve come to find that restitution is nebulous and elusive when it depends on the validation of humans. If I owe you $40,000 you can take me to court for it and get the value awarded to you by a judge but how do you get people to believe your sincerity if you’re Vick? He did two years in prison and lost $135 million dollars when his contract with the Atlanta Falcons was voided. He declared bankruptcy too but the “R” word remains mythically elusive. Truth is that maybe “making amends” is impossible. People aren’t forgiving by-and-large. They simply aren’t. Forgiveness is the key to restitution and it involves uncomfortable emotions.
It feels good to write people off and it’s easier than listening to a gifted athlete make claims of having been transformed in jail. But writing people off is not how we’ve structured the justice system. The system says pay what you owe and you can be restored to the community of citizens. Granted, some debts are so steep by legal standards that permanent prison sentences remove some from society. Nevertheless, it’s always disappointing when we (the society) condemn them (the “Vicks”) without a willingness to see restoration. Speak this way and people say you’re a “bleeding heart” too soft to invoke the teeth of the law. But isn’t the spirit of any law correction and not destruction? What kind of society roots for people to fail? How sadistic and arrogant are we when God doesn’t even quit on humanity. I can hear the pundits now, “…But I never ran a dog-fighting ring.” No, but you’ve fudged income taxes, neglected spending time with children, dabbled in drug use, had immoral thoughts, lied to your boyfriend/girlfriend, disrespected your parents maybe even stolen merchandise or had multiple abortions. No one deserves a second chance but we get them. I’ve gotten third and fourth chances myself. Restitution means we exist in the difficult tension of mixing punishment and rehabilitation for the sake of redemption. Michael Vick is just one more test-case to see if America will opt out of its responsibility to the complete purpose of the law.
Posted: by Norman Anthony
I think people as a whole tend to forget more than we forgive. Especially in a case like Vick. In his return to the sport he loves, bring a championship contention or even a ring to the organization and all will be forgotten. Of course there will be the few that bring up the past, but for most he will be the guy that helped his team to triumph. Now the flip side to that coin exsist too. If he doesn’t return gloriusly to the sport all that people will remember is his past.”He never should of come back, DOG KILLER.” they’ll say. Intersting how it all works, look at the King of Pop. In my opinion he never admitted to anything, so to most he was excused of a restitution. But the dude did some strange things and paid families to go away(I wonder if those gag orders from the settlements exsist after death) Yet as we saw he was hailed this great individual who contributed to our culture so much. I wonder to those kids(if anything happened) how much he contributed to their lives. Or how about Roman Powlanski(director) who was charged with the drugging and sodomizing of a underage girl. Instead of facing the charges, he now resides in France outside the reach of our laws, never to return not even to receive life time achievement awards given by his elitist friends in hollywood. Where was his restitution? It will be interesting to see how this young man, who did pay a huge debt to our society, did own his part in all of it. Will he be treated as someone who has changed and turned around or will it be just forgotten and not forgiven.
Lets wait and see
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I KNOW PEOPLE HAVE POPPED IN AND READ THIS TODAY. I THOUGHT I SAID ENOUGH AS WELL AS NORMAN, TO STIR UP SOME DEBATE OR DISSCUSSION. LETS HEAR SOME THOUGHTS PEOPLE….
There is a great difference in forgiveness and rooting for someone to fail. The author here makes the mistake of equating the two. To forgive is to accept that the past cannot be changed. It is accepting what has occurred as fact. It is also admitting that Vick is human.
As a decent human person, I accept that Vick erred. I accept that Vick served time for a gambling offense (not any animal abuse charges) and served time for gambling-related crimes. Because he served time for these offenses and performed community service, does he have the right to return to the community and live life? Absolutely. Does he deserve the right to be placed atop a pedestal earning the multi-million dollar salary of a sports icon? I say “no”.
We let him move on but forgiveness doesn’t mean you magically return to the place you left off. Respect is earned. Prized sports careers are earned. Multi-million dollar endorsements that hail someone as a role model are earned. Forgiveness isn’t a magic eraser but putting things in perspective.
The problem with the Michael Vick case is that people want a trite resolution and trite answers and that is not where the important truths lie. There is then the issue of his lack of remorse (not to be confused with polished, public-relations, book tour promotional humility).