Title: Michael Vick blogs: "My heart hurts...To think of what I've done..."
url: http://tinyurl.com/2fqjuv6
Michael Vick is a professional quarterback who played for the Atlanta Falcons before serving 21 months in prison for operating an illegal dog fighting ring. He went to jail in 2007. After he got out, he published this blog. Vick says that he is sorry for his actions and that he is going to launch a campaign in collaboration with the Human Society soon. He talks about the remorse he feels and how writing this blog is a challenge he is going to have to face. Similarly, the challenge of redemption is also one that he takes on at the end of the blog. Is there sincerity throughout the blog, enough for redemption, or did it feel forced? He seems to have also fallen from grace in his own book, what kind of objectives do you think he has for redeeming himself in his own mind? Does this blog, his actions with the Human Society, and his jail time give enough reason to "forgive" and give Michael Vick "a second chance," or are his actions too inhumane to be forgotten? And does his fame and his relation to football affect his redemption? Would an ordinary person be treated the same?
I feel like he does show remorse through his blog but I also have always felt that no matter how much remorse someone shows after making a mistake the feeling is always at least a little forced. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. I believe this saying very much so as long as he can show that he has changed and has a new found feeling toward animal cruelty I can trust his above statements. Some of these actions he has to take upon himself to bring redemption for his own feelings toward his wrongful actions. Some of these actions he already told about, such as the help with the humane society and his jail time have some impact on me which makes me want to give him some forgiveness and I would like to say that these feelings have nothing to do with him being a famous person but I think that a lot of people, me included, do have stronger feelings toward the issue because he is famous. I feel I can forgive him easier than I would forgive an ordinary person.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Vick's blog was probably his publicist's idea, there is definite sincerity in his words. Unedited. Unfiltered. It is all Michael Vick. By posting this blog, he is taking a step toward redeeming himself as a person. He seems to find it difficult to express himself because of his upbringing, but he also states that he has changed, not because of prison, but because of the various animal lovers he has met. The kids that look up to him are his inspiration, which I personally feel will lead him in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteHis actions are cruel, but deserve our forgiveness. In my opinion, Michael Vick received a harsh punishment for his act and more than served his due time. His fame is the only reason he has a CHANCE at redemption. Had he been an ordinary person, he would be unemployed or working a minimum wage job, just like the large majority of convicted felons out there.
Throughout this blog, I feel like Mike Vick is showing some genuine remorse. It would definitely be difficult coming from his situation and writing something to address those who may not be his biggest fans, especially for someone who is so well known in the media and sports world. I feel like he does a decent job of expressing his feeling and telling the readers what he plans to do to redeem himself. I think he could do a better job though. It may just take time, but I do not believe he is one hundred percent convincing right now. I think like he says, he is going to have to speak through his actions in order to receive forgiveness. And I believe if he does, he will successfully be forgiven.
ReplyDeleteMike seemed very sincere in his blog apology. His words seemed genuine and true. I believe that his jail time and encounters with people who disapproved of his actions gave him a new perspective. It takes more than a new perspective though. He must also have perseverance. Coming from the lifestyle where somebody has to be, “numb to the violence in a [my] community,” it would be easy to fall into doing bad things again. Hopefully, Mike will continue doing the right thing, because he can affect so many people.
ReplyDeleteI feel like he has somewhat seen the error of his way because when you go to an animal lover they really show you a different side of animals. If Michael Vick does start up with the humane society and see how these dogs need love and how some of them are scared and have no trust in humans I feel like that will help his recovery alot. I feel like even if he isn't totally sincere right now that he would like to be. He was honest about how he wasn't affected by jail time it was more of an inconvenience for him. He admitted that he has always been outside of himself and nothing pulled on his emotions. I think that if he goes through with his plan of helping out animals I could forgive him because he is giving back to animals. The fact that he is a famous football player doesn't really play too much of a part. Those who like him and don't have an opinion about animals forgive him just fine but those who do like animals won't forgive him as easily. Because he is in the public eye he gets more chances but i don't think it is too much of a difference.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Michael Vick has truely changed. The way he wrote his blog makes him sound extremely sincere when he continually questions himself as to why he did what he did. Although a his publicist may have put him up to this blog, I think that Michael really took it as his own challange in life to express his regrets. Also how he states that there is no excuse for his actions proves that this blog is a genuine apology.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the blog was well written, not in the grammatical sense, but in the sincerity in his words. In fact, because he didn’t have perfect grammatical English made his apology seem more sincere. It was more like he actually wrote it, and not one of his people. I think he realizes now how cruel and insensitive his actions towards the dogs must have seemed to fans and Americans. I believe at the time, when he was operating the dog fighting ring, he really didn’t understand just how bad it was. So I think he is trying to redeem himself by “waking” up to the cruelness of dog fighting. I think he will still have a lot of work to do to win back the hearts of his fans, but I personally believe that he will be forgiven. I don’t believe that his actions will ever be forgotten, but will be forgiven. People seem to remember the bad things the best.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that his fame has something to do with his redemption because sport fans argue that those actions had nothing to do with how well he plays on the field. As long as he can come back from jail and still play like they remember, then those people will accept him immediately. However for the animal lovers, it will take more than his action on the football field. It will take action in his personal life to be redeemed. If this situation would have happened to an “ordinary” person, it wouldn’t have gotten this much attention in the first place and would be quickly been forgotten altogether. However that “ordinary person” would have this on his record and wouldn’t have had a job coming out of jail.
I believe, like many others have said, that Michael Vick's words were sincere and from the depths of his soul. Although it may seem a bit forced, I feel the apology was more for himself personally to hold himself accountable for his future happenings. My personal belief is that he is truly remorseful for his actions and working hard to redeem his reputation.
ReplyDeleteBeing a public figure, I foresee that he will have mixed reviews despite his actions hereafter. We all see the people in this world under different lights. Some will always see him as a monster for his past no matter what he does to redeem himself, while others will always see him as a hero because of his athleticism. People can generally forgive and forget. Because we don't have a past with Michael Vick like we do our everyday friends and family, I feel like it is a lot easier for "extraordinary" people compared to just the "ordinary".
In my point of view, the blog and Michael Vick's apology seem to be very sincere.From his words, the remorse of what he has done to the dog was expressed very well.Vick has pointed out some of the reasons, which caused his action such as the violent background or the way he has been living is numb. Then, he did not use any of the reasons as an excuse for his action. What he did is that he talks about there are lots of young men are growing up in this kind of environment,the society should pay attention on them and they need to be taken care of. Also, speak of his preious experience of being numb, he said he realize that being popular, rich is not enough.Vick realized the severe mistakes he has made,and most importantly, he promise his action in the future, and said that his action will speak louder than his words.
ReplyDeleteAlthough his apology looks really sincere,it is still possiable that he was forced to apologize because it effects his career.However,I think he deserves a second chance because he has been punished by putting in jail for 21 months.Since, he has made the promise people could forgive him and watch his action in the future.
In addition, I feel like Vick will be harder forgiven than ordinary people. Unlike ordinary people, as a football player, Vick have more opportunities to appear on TV or any public places. People always remember and maybe talk about his mistakes,as long as he still playing professional football.
In Micheal Vick's blog, he shows the remorse to the public. It is obvious to feel his guilty between the lines. From the words, we can see that he was very sorry for what he did and tried to correct it. Micheal tried his best to be along with the animal lovers and knew more about animals. This action proves that he wants to be away from what he have went through. He gives the reasons that lead him to the wrong place. Considering of his childhood situation, Micheal appeals to the public to pay more attention on these children to make sure that they would not make the same mistake. He show his concern about the children in the similar enviornments. He is ready to come back to the football game. This time, he is not only playing for money and fame, but also for the children who love him. He wants to be a great example for them. He has made the decision to start all over again. The apologize is acceptable.
ReplyDeleteThere are both positive and negative parts in his blog. First, I think he knew exactly what he did to the dogs was wrong before he was sent to jail, since everyone knows killing lives is extremely not good, no matter in which environment he grew up. He said he had no excuse, but I think the bad environment is the excuse he brought up. However, I still believed the bad environment he grew up had a great on him. Second, he let us pay more attention to those children growing up in a adversity. I think this is the most positive effect he had.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a conflict I found in the class topic. If we believe everyon can make a mistake, shall we think everyone also deserved a second chance? Or some kind of mistakes,like murdering,can nerver be forgiven?
When I read his blog I immediately thought he was being sincere. It didn't seem scripted, edited, or polished. It was raw emotion, something you don't see from celebrities who know they can almost always buy their way out of any sticky situation. But Michael Vick served his time, he is living with his decision everyday. He didn't just admit to his mistake and then ignore it, he chose to take his mistake to the public. He could have just as easily served his jail time, made an apologetic statement when he was released, and then went on with his life, but he chose to do more. He chose to really apologize and focus on his problem and the factors in his life that led him down the wrong path- something that no publicist or assistant can conjure up.
ReplyDeleteVick's words make me want to forgive him in the same true and honest way that he apologized. However, I don't know that in this blog he is even asking for forgiveness. I don't think he's completely ready for that in his heart- at least at this point in his blog. Obviously he wants to be forgiven and have a second chance but I think he just wants to be honest with people and to get away from that picture the media paints of all celebrities being above the law.
I do not think that we have any reason to forgive Michael Vick. He
ReplyDeletereally did not do anything to us. He harmed dogs and although I cannot
say that I would let him take my dog for a walk as far as the
dog-fighting is concerned in my eyes its over. He has served the time
that the State of Georgia deemed necessary and now is as he once was
just a football player. I think that he should continue his work
toward helping the Humane Society because this is an important step to
show that he is willing to do what is needed to repair the wrongs that
he has committed. As a public figure he should try to be a good
example for the children that idolize him and in many ways he has. He
has paid over and above for the wrongs he has committed. He like the
rest of us is human and will make mistakes. He never claimed to be
anything more than a football player and has worked hard to bring his
reputation back to the place it used to be.
unlike almost everyone else, i don't think that michael vick is sincere. Half his blog sounds intelligent and the other half sounds like a child wrote it. While reading it, i got the impression that someone else wrote it and then they threw in some slang to make it seem like Vick wrote it.I think that everything he is doing is because he wants to restore his fame and be back in the publics good graces. Additionally, I think that nothing vick ever says or does can redeem his reputation. What he did is unforgivable. i also feel that him sitting in jail isn't a strong enough punishment for him to suddelny see the light and become a changed man.
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ReplyDeleteI doubt his sincerity and whether he feel truely remorseful for his actions. First off, the fact should be reviewed before one's apologize is accepted. Leaving his words aside, we may gain a rather cruel but real picture from other resources on the Internet. Michael Vick,a decent quarterback of NFL, ran an enterprise which earned huge fortune from dogfighting for 6 years from 2001 to 2007, and killed approximately 6-8 dogs that "did not perform well". Assuming that his attitude towards those poor dogs is changed by several animal lovers overnight, how comes he did not realize the necessity of protecting animal in the past SIX years? Let's say he was highly influenced by the violent atmosphere in his community, then how comes his deep-rooted mind could change overnight? Self-contradicting statements like this can be easily found in his blog.
ReplyDeleteThough people could be excessively mean when testing celebrities' words, we still can't deny the possibility that Michael Vick's apologize is merely a production of PR strategy under the force of pulic cry. What's worse, some ghostwriter could simply make it up for him and post it on his blog, hoping to help him restore his public reputation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(Xuankai Shen)In my opinion, I can forgive Michael Vick's behavior. Because he said he realized his mistake is not because of sitting in prison, but he saw many animal lover. I think this is really hearty. The punishment cannot be the best method to let people realize their mistakes, and the best way is they found the problems themselves and found the root-cause. Michael did it, he admitted his mistake because he saw the love.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the word "numb" make me sympathize with him. If the life becomes numb, it's really awful. This means all the emotions are gone, no happy, no sorrow, no mercy. I think this is the cause that why Michael can do such cruel things to a dog. Now he found this problem, and he found that he saw too much violence, even in his childhood. His experience of growing up may give him many bad influence.
And the public statement of his career makes people have confidence with his future. So his apology is acceptable and believable.
Michael Vick was wrong, and he did realized that he was wrong. He not only apologized to everybody, but encouraged people to protect animals world-wide by founding donations and warning people who were making the same mistakes as him. Whatever mistakes he made, these are enough for the compensations. We cant know if he was truly doing those from heart, but at least he did them. Let us just assume he was really regretful for his mistakes and kept an eye on what he will be doing next for going along with his remorse.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that Michael Vick is somewhat sincere in his blog, even though I'm sure it was his publicist's idea. I believe that he is sorry in the sense that he affected his team and was cruel to dogs. However, like Paul, I feel as though he does not need to apologize for his actions. He is a football player. He does not need to set an example for the public just because he is famous. What he did was wrong but there was no reason for him to have to apologize to the nation for something that does not affect us directly. He is not a political or lifestyle figure that we are supposed to look to for guidance in our lives. He is an athlete. A normal person would not have to go through all the criticism that Vick had to deal with, just for dog fighting. I don't mean to say that dog fighting isn't a big deal, but there have been NFL players accused of rape and vehicular homicide that didn't get nearly as much attention as him.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to celebrity apologies, I feel as if they happen all too much to be taken very seriously. However in Vick's case, I appreciate the fact that he comes right out with an actual "I'm sorry.” It seems to be a common trait for celebrities to not tell the whole truth and to only take partial responsibility for their actions when caught in the wrong. Mike said nothing bad about anyone but himself and seemed extremely remorseful throughout, and for that I have a great deal of respect. Yes, he made an awful life decision but at the same time he served his fair time in prison for it and seems to feel remorseful, which is why he makes it so easy for me to forgive him. Not only does he seem sincere but he also has even vouched to launch a campaign for The Human Society in an effort to help people in similar predicaments. He noticed his problem, has apologized for his actions and is starting to make changes in his life to help regain respect, I feel Vick has done an awesome job regaining the public’s trust and hopefully he continues on the right path.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Vick is sincere in his apology and deserves a second chance. He served his time, apologized for his actions, and is putting forth effort to be a better person. Not only did he admit to what he did and that it was wrong, he also realized that he was a role model to many and that his actions set a bad example. I feel that Vick wants to change and does not give any excuses for his actions. He wrote his apology in a way that was very clear and easy for all to understand. I think that Vick's actions were wrong, but he is doing the right things to redeem himself. His apology and challenge to himself make it easier for me to forgive him and a great place to start publically redeeming himself.
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