An emerging culture of brutality is a fundamental issue in twenty first century America . Gratuitous violence in the entertainment media, TV and the movies is seen as a threat to the next generation, the children and youth that constitute our future. There is deep and widespread concern that blood and gore in video games will desensitize a generation, make increasing levels of violence an emerging feature of the social fabric. All decent men and woman acknowledge this danger, and the necessity of standing up to it.
A shared moral code, a perception of fundamental good and evil, an expectation that growing adherence to moral behavior goes hand in hand with the progress of mankind, has been an integral part of our heritage from the beginning.
“Thou shalt not kill” was carved in the stone Moses brought down from the mountain and has been a foundation of the Jewish heritage and Christianity, a fundamental guidepost for leading a life of morality. Philosophers and theologians such as Thomas Aquinas have held the commandments to be natural law thus binding on all rational men.
The modern translation makes clear that this commandment prohibits murder, the taking of life without just cause such as self defense or legitimate acts of war. Man may slaughter his cattle and sheep for food, may hunt the wild animals to feed his family; but no just moral code permits killing, of man or beast, for the sheer pleasure of it, for entertainment.
Pit dog fighting is an abomination, a blot on mankind of the same nature as the Nazi atrocities and the other brutalities of history. Yes, it is true that improperly taking a human life is a more grievous offence than taking the life of an animal, but the distinction is one only of degree, not of kind.
The pit fighting heritage is the heritage of brutality and intrinsic evil, a heritage that no decent human being can embrace, just as no decent man could participate in or condone the holocaust.
What religious leader or teacher, what minister, rabbi or priest would condone the brutality of the dog fighting pit ? Which Islamic teacher would provide justification ?
No real Christian can endorse the pit dog heritage without betraying his faith, no observer of the Jewish heritage could endorse spurious killing and remain faithful. No decent man or woman of any philosophy can participate without betrayal of what it means to be an upright member of the human race.
And throughout history those who stand silent in the presence of evil are ultimately engulfed and taken down by that evil. There is simply no middle ground. Ultimately each man is counted, and ultimately silence is recorded as an endorsement of evil.
Many in the working dog community have stood silent in the presence of the pit fighting advocates, condoned their passion for this evil heritage by silence. Most American Pit Bull Terrier advocates also advocate the evil that is pit fighting, be it openly or surreptitiously.
Opposition to canine breed specific legislation without the corresponding universal shunning of those who condone the fighting pit is an open invitation to the public at large to see this hypocrisy and thus bring their wrath down upon us.
And calling a dog a "pit bull" is to condone pit fighting, just the organization that allows breeds with the word pit and yet cries out against breed specific legislation is wallowing in open hypocrisy.
Ultimately we will be judged by this silence, by this acquiescence.
And if this judgment comes to pass it will be condemnation by society at large, and it will be just, brought upon us by our silence in the presence of evil.
Jim Engel, Dec 2005