DCMP on 
Dana Porter on 
I recently posted here about Philadelphia Eagle Michael Vick winning the NFL’s Ed Block Courage Award. I thought it was an insult to the award.
Today, I received this email from Maria, the Outreach & Communications Coordinator at Change.org. She saw my post on Vick being given the Courage Award and pointed me to a petition on their site started by one of their members. It’s a drive to have Sam Lamantia, the CEO of the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation deny Vick the award.
You can sign the petition here.
I believe Vick has the right to work in his chosen profession. He served his debt to society. But the thought that by a unanimous vote his teammates gave him a courage award is repulsive. Michael Vick willingly created abuse. Ed Block fought against it.
After some research, I found empirical data (NJVMA) supporting family violence, child neglect and abuse correlating with animal abuse. In family violence there is a pecking order whereby the innocent victims, children and family pets have no voice. Ed Block became a voice for the children living in a situation that they have no control over.
Michael Vick is a football player. The general public should allow him to do his little football thing. But, awarding him with Ed Block Foundation Courage Award is not going to extricate him from his reputation of bullying and cruel behavior. Recognizing Vick as a courageous man deserving of such accolades for his tenacity to endure and to quote Vick, “All I have been through and 95% of the population could not overcome” only jeopardizes the credibility of Ed Block’s reputation. Very unfortunate that the goodness of one man can be used to repudiate the evil behavior of another.
I concur. Thanks for commenting.