MICHAEL VICK CASE SHOWS ALL THAT IS WRONG IN CULTURE OF VICTIMIZATION

The report in your Tuesday paper announcing the transfer of Michael
Vick to a drug treatment program reflects everything that is wrong
with the culture of victimization in America today.

Vick, found guilty of acts of animal cruelty that express a mental
defect found only among humans, has by reason of insanity on the part
of the Justice Department and the idealization of celebrity among the
morally challenged, had his criminal acts reduced from perpetrator to victim.

His responsibility for committing such atrocious acts as the torture
and killing of dogs, animals bred for millennia to trust and protect
man, has been deemed the result of an addiction, an uncontrollable
result of his inability to understand that what he has done is
inhuman. The probability that the 23 month sentence will be reduced
following his stay at a federal minimum security prison will only
serve to convince the former football star that his behavior,
correctable by a 12-step program, was not his fault, and that
forgiveness is left in the hands of criminal. Adulation as a sports
figure, belief in sycophants and the conclusion that celebrity
changes the moral code is the mistake of politicians, film stars and
religious leaders who would be cultural leaders on the basis of
notoriety alone.

Responsibility, accountability and a little humility will still be
needed long after the effects of ego and ignorance have done their damage.

Morton Kurzweil