Convicted felon Michael Vick on Tuesday spoke at a Durham school for what we used to call delinquents but now call “youth in need of services.” The idea, apparently, is that only a convicted criminal who has actually done time can relate to the kids at the school, which has the Orwellian name of New Horizon Academy of Excellence.
When my kids went to Durham’s inner city schools they used to marvel that it was always the bad kids who got taken on special field trips, the thought being that such incentives would help them mend their ways. It seldom, if ever, did, which is why there are now places like the New Horizon Academy of Excellence.
Credit to Vick for trying to change his life, but why does the school think he has more to offer these kids than a black man who works at a job or owns a business, who lives with this wife and tries to raise his kids to be productive, law-abiding citizens? There are thousands like that, and I’d bet they’d give much better advice than Michael Vick.
