Ah, yes, aren't we all so perfect?

I just read a column by one Jamele (something like that) Hill at ESPN.com about how she's fed up with Michael Vick. I wrote a bit yesterday regarding the Atlanta Falcons quarterback and how I was sick and tired of hearing his name in the news, but that the public and the press should not assume people to be guilty until proven innocent. The press get warm and fuzzy from having a story to tell and what information to they relay to the public? Speculation, direct and indirect connections, hypothetical clamor, etc. These "news"bits are anything but physical geography lectures regarding pressure points.

She stated that there are no excuses regarding people that Vick has or had associated with, that the people we have or had associated ourselves with shows what kind of person we are, they're a direct reflection of us. You know, I think she has a point. I think...for the most part...the people we associate ourselves with are a reflection of us, a part of us. How many "friends" do we just go to for one thing or another, talk about one topic with, etc.? There are some friends I may regularly party or hit the bars with, but don't do much else with. There are others I just talk sports with. There are others I may play the role of counselor for. If I look at each and every one of them individually, absolutely none of them are a direct reflection of me. If I group them all together and combine one piece of their personality together, then one could say that combination is a direct reflection of me. I think this is even less accurate when it comes to long-time childhood friends from back home. These are people we've associated ourselves with for the majority of our lives, since we were 4, 5, 6 years old. They're like family, people we've known almost all of our life. Some of their lives may go awry. They may make poor decisions that we don't agree with. There may come a time when we reflect on who they were 10 years ago, what they are today, and how they're not quite the person they were. But, I find that many times, we still make time for them, whether that's once a week, once a month, or once a year, they're never completely out of our lives. ...and family, it's not like we have any choice of which family we're born into. ...and unlike Vick and other celebrities like him, the majority of us don't have to worry about stories getting into the nightly news or the newspapers, because we have a friend or family member causing problems.

So, while I completely agree that Vick needs to be much more careful on whom he shares his wealth with, I don't believe it's fair or right to say that these people are a direct reflection of Vick or that Vick should be suspended before he's found guilty of any wrong doing. Ms. Hill may want to deny it, but I'm sure there are some in her life that she has to wonder about, people whom could give her a bad name if she was as famous as Vick, and whom might give her a different perspective on this situation.