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Effort underway to deny Vick the Ed Block Courage Award
By Christie Keith
January 6, 2010
Organizers at Change.org are reaching out to the animal community to bring pressure on the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation to deny Michael Vick the award.
Last night, Maria Tchijov, Outreach and Communications Coordinator at Change.org, emailed me and asked for help in getting signatures on a petition to Sam Lamantia, the CEO of the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation:
Dear Mr. Lamantia,
Recently the Philadelphia Eagles have elected Michael Vick as their recipient for this year’s Courage Award. Given Mr. Vick’s crimes and felony conviction, we do not believe he is worthy of this honor. For several years, in addition to promoting dogfighting, Vick himself tortured, abused, and murdered innocent dogs for his own profit and apparent enjoyment. This is not courage. This is inhumanity, immorality, and sheer brutality and does not warrant giving Vick this or any other reward.
Many of us have protested Vick’s reinstatement to the NFL. There has been strong media and PR influence in trying to diminish his past actions and erase the public’s memory of his sadistic behavior. We encourage you to stand up for the rights of animals everywhere and the memory of the dogs who endured Vick’s cruelty. Please do the right thing and deny Michael Vick the Courage Award.
They’ve already got around 6000 signatures — but I think we can do better than that. Sign here.
And because I know this will be a concern to many of the readers here, yes, this petition is housed in the “animal rights” section of Change.org. This is a very active community with participants with a wide variety of views, from those nearly all of us would support to those many of us wouldn’t.
Please don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Surely on this we can all agree: Michael Vick should not receive this award.
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thanks for the info - my signature has been added.
Comment by mary frances — January 6, 2010 @ 1:24 pm
You’re right - I bristled at seeing the term “animal rights.” Would rather it said something about “compassion for animals” or “responsiblity toward animals.”
And you’re also right that this should not get in the way of the larger goal.
On my way to sign the petition,
elaine
Comment by elaine — January 6, 2010 @ 1:49 pm
Also thanks for the insight into the saying that is new to me that is - the perfect being the enemy of the good - I googled it and had a good read regarding Voltaire, Jesus and others.
Comment by mary frances — January 6, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
How Vick gets nominated for awards is a mystery to me. He will always be sick Vick. And I don’t believe for one second he has or will change his attitude about dogs and dog fighting. My name has been added.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — January 6, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
Thanks for the heads up on this, Christie. Nobody would love to see the award taken out of Sick Vick’s hands more than me, and as soon as I’m done with this comment I’ll be heading over to sign the petition. Obviously, I’m the one who brought this insane story to the attention of Pet Connection’s readers. In addition, I wasn’t shy about my opinion on the topic, as either sports fan or dog owner. However, I’d be very surprised if the award is rescinded. As I’ve read it, the Ed Block Foundation specifically left it up to the teams to determine who *they* feel is the best honoree, and I don’t believe they’ve reserved a veto power if they don’t like the teams’ decisions, for whatever reason. Just sayin’, when you give a bunch of athletes the ability to hand out an award like this, you might not always like their results, but they are the voters (resisting tying this vote to what baseball writers do, on the day of the announcement of Baseball Hall of Fame inductees).
Comment by David S. Greene — January 6, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
I’ve signed.
Comment by Glenye Oakford — January 6, 2010 @ 2:41 pm
I’m guessing the Ed Block Foundation has never been challenged on one of their awardees before, so it’s definitely worth a try. The worst that can happen is that we keep the pressure on people who support dog fighters.
Thanks for re-posting this!
Comment by Stephanie Feldstein — January 6, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
Signed.
Comment by Susan — January 6, 2010 @ 2:55 pm
Honestly, even if they can’t deny him the award, I just want to make sure that Vick’s crimes are not forgotten.
Or Vick’s dogs.
Comment by Christie Keith — January 6, 2010 @ 3:18 pm
Thanks Christie. I signed.
Comment by Anne T — January 6, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
I sent an e-mail to the Ed Block Foundation when this was first announced. To date, I’ve heard… nothing.
Comment by K.B. — January 6, 2010 @ 4:33 pm
I’ve signed, also, and added a few comments of my own.
Thanks, Christie, for staying on top of this story so that anybody who wants to can comment.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — January 6, 2010 @ 4:35 pm
Signed
Comment by VJ — January 6, 2010 @ 4:40 pm
Signed.
Comment by Susan Fox — January 6, 2010 @ 7:16 pm
They’ve got to have made exceptions for ‘final rullings’ on previous awardees- in 2005, the entire TEAM was the awardee for the N.O. Saints.
Comment by Cait — January 6, 2010 @ 7:45 pm
Thanks Christie for staying on the frontlines of this battle we want let this go you got my support I’m there with you all the way
Comment by Darryl H — January 6, 2010 @ 7:51 pm
Signed.
Annoyed at the flood of email it unleashed from Change.org. You need to go to your account settings and turn off a lot of settings or you get emails begging you to sign petitions for other causes. But the annoyance is worth it if it gets the attention of the Ed Block Foundation.
I did add a longish personal comment to the signature telling them that “courage” is embodied by standing up to the media machine that’s trying to rehabilitate Vick’s image, and that they can show courage by not giving him the award. I’m not sure whether it will help, but I thought I’d put their own principles back in their lap. Now we’ll see if they can walk the walk. Fingers crossed.
Comment by Feline — January 6, 2010 @ 8:25 pm
Giving him the award is nuts. I’d be insulted if I were a previous winner. What kind of good character award goes to convicted felons just released from jail, regardless of the crime?
Comment by Barbara Saunders — January 6, 2010 @ 9:28 pm
Feline, that is annoying! I didn’t get anything, though… wonder why?
*off to check settings*
Comment by Christie Keith — January 6, 2010 @ 10:47 pm
Signed.
Comment by Nadine L — January 7, 2010 @ 1:56 am
Signed.
Comment by glock — January 7, 2010 @ 4:09 am
I signed & shared on Facebook. Hopefully, they’ll receive thousands more signatures than their goal.
Comment by Kathyb — January 7, 2010 @ 7:08 am
Signed.
Comment by Kayleigh — January 7, 2010 @ 7:41 am
This is one of the blatant examples of how our culture has become one that serves up poor examples of quality leadership to our young children and teenagers. It is among the reasons that we are thought so poorly of in other countries. We would prize a thug like this man (if that is what you can stomach calling him) and reward him for cruel and inhuman treatment of innocent animals. It is right up there with Hollywood glamourizing thugs like “Bonnie & Clyde” and the other sleezy reality shows that blanket our networks.
If Michael Vick wants to earn redemption he should be volunteering at animal shelters acrossed the country cleaning their cages, walking them and contributing to the financial cost of operating them. Further, he should donate money to every rescue in this country that saves abandoned and abused pets. Then and only then will he begin to have some measure of redemption. This man proved he is no more than a wild jungle animal. Those around him: DITTO!
Comment by Joyce Shuemake — January 7, 2010 @ 10:09 am
Just like the NFL to pretend that all the horrific things he did are somehow forgiven. They are just as guilty.
Comment by John Whitlow, DC — January 7, 2010 @ 11:05 am
Vick does not deserve any award, he deserves to spend time behind bars for many years to come.
Comment by Chris Broyhill — January 7, 2010 @ 11:46 am
I signed and passed it on, but almost immediately started getting emails from the website to sign other petitions.
Comment by Original Lori — January 7, 2010 @ 2:58 pm
It really isn’t surprising that Vick’s teammates think what he did wasn’t ‘that bad’… after all, the NFL is rife with woman-beating men with anger issues and they generally only get a slap on the wrist for behaving like sociopaths. In comparison, ‘just killing some dogs’ probably seems like small potatoes to a lot of those guys.
Comment by Pai — January 7, 2010 @ 9:48 pm
After the inhumane and torturous acts on the pitt bulls, this man should never be entitled to any kind award for the rest of his life. He does not deserve and he should be punished for his acts.
Comment by Monique Balaban — January 17, 2010 @ 8:58 am
This is a joke to think that ANYONE would give an award to Vick for anything courageous. He is a coward and a monster,and always will be.
Comment by Julia Bleakley — January 17, 2010 @ 2:46 pm
I just deleted some pending comments here that were full of racist crap. I’m not sure exactly who linked to us, but obviously someone did.
Your racism disgusts me. Do not bring it to our house. It’s not welcome, and you’ll find yourselves banned for posting it, even if we catch it and it never sees the light of day.
What we say about Michael Vick… and what it says about us
Comment by Christie Keith — January 17, 2010 @ 3:46 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....oject.html
This can’t be right?
Comment by Snoopy's Friend — January 22, 2010 @ 10:24 am
no awards of ANY kind for vick
Comment by frank hoare — January 25, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
After reading his comments in that article,all I can say is wheres the vomit emoticon ?
Comment by Leslie K — January 25, 2010 @ 7:26 pm