High Moral Values

We are a nation of people that praise the good guy, we love the hero, the savior, the all around nice dude. Its evident by how we idolize Chelsey Sullenberger, how we stood behind the hero's of 9-11, and how we praised the Navy Seals for the rescue of an American hostage. We do all of this for the right reason, we do all of this because its important to define what we deem as good and bad; mostly we do this because they deserve it, and not everyone gets acknowledged for doing the right thing so we beat these news to a bloody pulp to make up for it. We stand for high moral values.
The problem isn't that our values are getting too high, they are getting too distorted. With Micheal Vick's release from federal prison looming many people will speculate about Vick "getting what he deserved." NFL teams are avoiding him like the plague despite the fact that he'd probably add a level of athleticism to many of the teams in the league. Also there is no way NFL teams aren't interested, one of the top overall athletes in football is eligible and no one cares? Please. The fact is teams are so concerned with their image that they don't want the liability of having a dog killer on their team.
There is no doubt in Vick's guilt, and what he deserved can and probably will be debated for years to come but the truth is this: deserved it or not, Vick is being punished worse than any other player in recent history. For what? Not for the dogs, even PETA admitted they wanted to take Vick to the cleaners to prove a point, to make him an example. We bought it hook line an sinker, sure some people complained but they were few and far between swallowed by the animal lover inside most people. The problem is with so many athletes with criminal records how do you decide which is worthy of a thorough thrashing by the American judicial system and who gets off with a slap on the wrist?
Why did we suddenly value dogs' (admittedly several dogs) lives more than humans? In 2000 Ray Lewis was a arrested on murder charges that he denied. In a street fight that left two men dead Lewis and two other men were arrested for the stabbing deaths of both men. When Lewis denied his guilt the Ravens stood behind him. Then in a case with more holes than the OJ Simpson trial Lewis pled guilty to a misdemeanor and let his two lackeys take the fall, hall of famer indeed. The problem is if you get on and Google NFL players: murder charges you get pages and pages of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and so on. If you make it NFL players: sexual abuse, the list gets longer.
There is no advocating for Vick at this point, what's done is done. There is no feeling sorry for him either, what he did was vile and evil to the highest degree. Somebody should be advocating for our conscience though, when NFL teams are afraid to pick up a dog killer for the image they might have, while suspects to a whole litany of crimes against men, women, even children sit on their sidelines. We let it happen, with our "high moral values", we will boo Vick when he comes back, fans will say things like "I'll never watch another game if my team gets Vick." Then we'll cheer when Ray Lewis rips off an unsuspecting running back's head. Thank god for our high standards.