It is amazing how people who do horrible things are always so sorry after they have been caught and are forced to spend time in prison. Why can’t people just admit that the only reason they are sorry is because they got caught? Had they not been caught, they would probably still be committing whatever crimes it was that they were involved with.
Take Michael Vick, for instance. The former star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons spent 18 months of his 23-month sentence in prison for an illegal dog-fighting ring.
I believe someone who is violent to animals has deeper underlying problems, but I’m not a psychiatrist. I’m just saying that several serial killers admitted to torturing and killing animals before they moved on to people. Am I saying that Vick is a future serial killer? Not by any stretch. He is definitely an a-hole, though.
Vick, who just signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, has made several comments regarding his prison time and how sorry he is for his involvement with the Bad Newz Kennels he owned.
“I was disgusted, you know, because of what I let happen to those animals,” Vick said in a recent “60 Minutes” interview. “I could’ve put a stop to it. I could’ve walked away from it. I could’ve shut the whole operation down.”
So why didn’t he? I guess it’s just human nature. Doing things that are illegal usually has a high that accompanies their execution, and if it feels good and makes you happy,why stop doing it? And if it’s at the expense of defenseless animals, who cares? After all, they can’t complain.
Vick paid his debt to society, served his time and now has a future with the Eagles. It still doesn’t erase what he did. If he is really sorry then fine, but what was really eye opening about Vick’s ordeal was the amount of prominent athletes that came out to claim dog fighting wasn’t even a bad thing.
Stephon Marbury of the Boston Celtics reportedly called dog fighting a “sport” comparable to hunting, while Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis told people, “‘If that’s what he wants to do, do it. I think people should mind their business.” The kind of mentality that is tolerant of dog fighting and cruelty to animals like these sports figures exhibit is nothing short of appalling.
Another man who is suddenly sorry for what he did is good old Bernard Madoff, mastermind of the Ponzi scheme that has been called the “largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person.” He siphoned off billions from clients and even caused a few suicides in the process.
After Madoff’s sentencing to 150 years in prison, he stated, “I have left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren. This is something I will live in for the rest of my life. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry” may have been the word to use after the guilt from the first victim proved too great to continue on; it is not, however, the word to use after being caught for financially harming more than 4,500 others.
Why can’t people like Vick and Madoff just admit they were doing what they did because it was satisfying a carnal bloodlust and making them extra money? Why do people have to continue with the same old song and dance about how sorry they are after they get caught?
We all know that had they not been caught, they’d probably still be doing the same bad things they were doing originally, which makes this whole business of saying “I’m sorry” just seem a little insincere.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and a columnist for the Daily 49er.