Matters of Perspective
Interesting feature on ESPN.com about Atlanta’s history as a center of the civil rights movement, and how that history motivates the way many people in Atlanta view the Michael Vick case.
There are certain parallels between the situation and the 2003 mayoral election here in Philadelphia. When a bug was discovered in the mayor’s office, it was not hard at all for some people to believe that the listening device was a racially and/or politically motivated attack against a black political figure. I was in the middle of doing research on Martin Luther King, Jr. for my thesis at the time, so I certainly couldn’t say it was impossible to conceive. And I’m not someone who really lived through that atmosphere of distrust.
In this situation I find myself vacillating somewhat. I know about the idea of innocent until proven guilty, and I believe in that from the criminal justice point of view. But from the what-do-we-think-of-the-man perspective, I’m not sure we’re under an obligation to pretend that nothing has happened to a public figure until the trial is over. And there seems to be a lot of evidence that one can use to draw a conclusion. I know people bring up the Duke lacrosse case as an example, but the way I remember things, within days of that story breaking, problems with the case and the evidence were coming to light. I just haven’t seen that happening yet.
But then again, I still have an instinct to trust the authorities, that there’s probably a good reason that they filed these charges. If I weren’t inclined to give them that benefit of the doubt, I’d probably have a very different perspective.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.