Murderers Are Not Role Models
We as humans look to aspire to be a great person and be popular. Well popularity isn’t all what it’s cut out to be. I have never in my life heard a grownup say that his role model is an athlete. It seems like now, if you ask youths who their role models are, most would say an athlete. It seems like everywhere you go, you hear about what athletes do and get away with. In our sports-fanatic society, we look to athletes like British people do towards royalty. They make a horrible mistake. We give them a second chance and yet they do it again. We give them so many chances to mess up again just because they are talented with a ball; can run really fast, or just very talented in what they do. They get less punishment than a commoner for doing the exact same thing.
The most important aspect to being a role model is the personal interaction the role model has with people. And let’s be honest with ourselves, most of us will never meet, nor have a personal relationship with an athlete. The closest most people will get is seeing them on TV and/or going to watch them live. A role model is a person whom another person can look up to. An individual to form a relationship with. They are positive and caring. The most important part is that they are able to admit when they have made a mistake, and they constantly learn from those mistakes. What we see on the news is that they are repeat criminals and most, if not all, get in trouble for the same incident that has gotten them in trouble before. Sometimes they make even worse mistakes, so why people would look up to people like them is beyond me.
For us, and more importantly for today’s youth, we should look towards athletes as idols not role models. Idolization of an athlete is just saying a person adores them for being so devoted to their craft. Their devotion can be a good way to motivate people in their everyday life and help them be successful. If we keep our youth thinking that it’s okay to think of athletes as role models, the world will become an uglier place than it is now. People (non-athletes) would believe if athletes can get away with things they should also. Unfortunately athletes like Michael Vick portray the idea that it’s okay to torture innocent animals. To me a role model is a follower where an idol is a leader. What Michael Vick displayed was a following act, he could have stepped away by saying “no” and yet he didn’t. He was involved in dog fighting where violent acts were committed on dogs. I believe the first step to a serial killer/criminal is animal abuse and there is scientific research to back that theory up.
Vick, one of the NFL’s most exciting players, had a dog fighting operation which he named enterprise “Bad Newz Kennels”. He hung, shot, electrocuted, drowned, beat, used dogs as bait, and other horrible acts like that if a dog didn’t perform right. Many dogs were seized from his property, and most, but not all were pit bulls. He got stopped and was found in possession of drugs which gave the authorities the power to get a search warrant for his property, where they found horrible conditions for the dogs. There were treadmills, bloody carpets, and evidence of murder/animal abuse. The police asked him about the dog fighting operation and he said someone stole his TV at the house and he isn’t there much. He had no idea. One: he is a serial-murderer and two: he is a habitual liar. At the end of the day the NFL really didn’t punish him. He was back in the NFL no sooner than he was out. He served nine-teen months with two more months on house arrest when he was sentenced to twenty-three months. But entering jail a week early to win the people’s favor shouldn’t have made a difference. He killed and tortured dogs, went across state lines, made the dogs fight for the price to live, which was at the end the humans decision, and among other horribly disrespecting acts.
Don’t think of athletes as role models. If anything, think of them as idols. They get away with so much just because they are talented in what they do makes the youth think they can do it. Animal abuse is the first step in becoming a serial killer/murderer. If a person can do violent, unspeakable things to innocent animals, then there’s no doubt in my mind a person can kill people with ease. Let’s take a step and not let athletes become role models in our minds anymore, just idols. We need to have stricter laws in place for everyone; and harsher punishment for the crime that they have committed. No matter if you are rich or poor; if you are black or white, there should be equality in the law to make everyone suffer the consequences equally. Also, let punishment fit the crime that has been committed.
By: Maggie McConnell
5/1/11
