Simmons on Vick

A nice Simmons article on the comeback of Michael Vick and how he's rooting for him.

There are legitimate questions about how and when we can forgive someone for their past. I remember someone asking David Simon about casting Snoop in the Wire. Snoop is a convicted murdered. She killed someone as a teenager and was let out of jail and thinking about getting involved with acting. She was a Baltimore native and The Wire happened to be shooting and someone got her connected up with the show. Someone asked Simon whether he felt like he ought to be hiring an ex-felon for a job - that in a way - she was profiting from her criminal past. I liked how Simon responded...he said (paraphrasing), "Look, what she did was inexcusably awful, but in the eyes of society, she had paid for her crime. She was out of jail. So the question then becomes - can she do the work? He thought she could. And so he cast her." All I know - the first time she comes on screen - as a audience member - I find her absolutely terrifying. She reads: gangster. Murderer. Who knows if the Wire has some social benefit. Or whether it is just another balm to white liberal guilt. I think the show matters. She contributed to the show. The world is an imperfect place. People are imperfect. Lemons to lemonade. I'll watch Vick this weekend.

And I hate dogs.