NIKE - Just Abuse it.
Nike
Abuse. Just Do it.
Just so we have it straight, let’s review:
In April of 2007, Michael Vick was arrested for engaging in and running a dog fighting circuit at his personal residence after authorities seized over seventy dogs, some of whom were obviously injured, and most of whom were pit bull terriers, from his Virginia property.
On July 17, a federal grand jury indicted Vick and 3 others on multiple counts, stating that Vick and three other men spent six years "knowingly sponsoring and exhibiting in an animal fighting venture."[24](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Newz_Kennels_dog_fighting_investigation)
In August, 2007 Vick plead GUILTY to the charges.
On May 21, 2009, Michael Vick was released from prison after spending 19 months behind bars, but remained under house arrest for another two months. (http://football.about.com/od/teamsfalcons/i/Michael-Vick.htm)
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It’s the year 2011, and Michael Vick is not only playing football, professionally for the NFL, but he’s doing well. Hell, he’s not incarcerated, that’s a plus. And hell, he’s a pro football player making millions upon millions of dollars. That’s cool.
Now, evidently, Nike has re-signed Vick (rhymes with dick). That’s way cool for him and all those with corporate cushioned wallets getting fatter by the televised minute.
"We have re-signed Michael Vick as a Nike athlete," the company's spokesperson, Megan Saalfeld, told CNN.
"Michael acknowledges his past mistakes. We do not condone those actions, but we support the positive changes he has made to better himself off the field."
(http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/07/michael-vick-nike-signs-endorsement-deal-nfl).
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What have learned from this, boys and girls of North America? Well, we’ve learned that being a pro-athlete has its definitive advantages, for sure. We’ve learned that in this glorious continent of ours, brutality and torture are permitted, so long as those acts are not against another human being...oh, except if that other human being is your daughter:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/17/48hours/main5393142.shtml
: and so long as you seem sorry, for a moment. And so long as that moment is captured on TV.
In an age when everyone and their brother can voice their online opinion on anything from the latest mass media covered murder trial to the most unheard of small time local domestic violence disputes, it’s easy to see the line between the two become blurred and even become viewed as common place or boring.
We, as a global audience have become so desensitized to the finding out of horrific happenings that we cannot come close to reacting humanely, to any extreme. We react in the same vein when hearing of our neighbour’s late night break-in as we do to our local convenience store hold-up as we do to our province’s recent amber alert as we do to our personal bank’s e-fraud alert as we do to our country’s ridiculous debt as we do to our governmental policies as we do to our children’s school emergency evacuations as we do....and as we do.
Just as long as they don’t touch us, personally, these temporary breaks in our peaceful lives could be taking place on the corner of our street or at the other end of the world. So long as they don’t touch us, personally, we really don’t care. We REALLY don’t. And yet, we SHOULD.
They are all, every one of them, a collective picture of the place we are all sadly calling home. Our collective home is this planet that we call earth. We call it Earth. Just we, here on Earth, call it as such. We don’t know, without a doubt, that the universe hasn’t shat out other life forms that are more advanced than we are and who call Earth by a different name as they keep tabs on us and our newest endeavours. However, here on Earth, we are consistently guilty of dehumanizing races other than our own, races that live on Earth right beside us. North America is known the world over for stepping in to aid those peoples less fortunate when it suits us, and yet we do not aid those in our own neighbourhood who are suffering through a lack of bare necessity.
We, as communities are ignoring those in need of help right around the corner from where we live, while we engage in fights across the globe and while we watch our local newscaster’s laughable try at concern over the latest do’s and don’ts of Hollywood red carpet attire . My children’s’ school breakfast program is overrun with kids eager to snatch up the last morsel of toast each morning just so they can get through the day without the grumbling in their stomachs causing them to fall asleep at their desks and my local news tells my children, before they head off to school, that Rhianna’s music is a slight against her abusive ex. How useful and profound.
These are the times we live in and this is the media that envelopes us. It’s OK to make mistakes like pitting innocent animals against one another for personal enjoyment and financial gain, or beating your spouse, or abusing your children for years and years, just so long as you have enough money (earned mostly through stardom) to make it all go away on the other side.
The conditions of life, AFTER you are released from prison are much more important and memorable than the conditions of life in prison for your crime, and certainly more pleasurable!
And so long as you have the ready funds to get out of prison, regardless of your crimes against all of humanity and life in general, you are absolved of all future condemnation. NIKE should be globally boycotted strictly on their disgusting show of shallowness through taking on Michael Vick, an ADMITTED animal abuser, as a sponsored money maker.
Tired and sedentary, the news makes me, and I always wish I had never tuned in to it in the first place. Always. If someone callous enough to not only encourage dog fighting but to sponsor it, gets to move forward in life with absurd amounts of dollars, AFTER being convicted of said activities, then why should we even bother to live righteously?
Why should we pay taxes?
Why should we listen?
Why should we give up our seat on the bus to less mobile? Why should we say ‘thank you, and please?’ Why should we side with the side that is most sided with?
