I am shocked and extremely insulted from Tommy Maple's article about my birthplace and the city in which most of my family resides. I am not going to comment about the dog fighting subject because I love dogs and know their value to our society.
Maple, who is a grad student in international communications, has managed to examine the moves of two separate parties and conclude that 1.4 million people feel the same way. If he is with international communications, this is not a good way for him to start off. Is he going to call other countries bad names when he grows up to be a real grown up and has a job?
This article should be about two parties only: the 3rd District Court in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Eagles management. The courts let Vick play. This has nothing to do with the city or its residents, yet he calls them heroin addicts and drug dealers. I have news for him. There are drug dealers everywhere, even in Gainesville. Most importantly, there are thousands of UF students with relatives from Philly and who are from there.
In a student newspaper, you have insulted an entire nation of good people who hold our city in the highest regard by printing his trashy, sensationalized column. Let me be clear-the city does not hate dogs. That is my main point.
There are 1.4 million people in that city and millions of others who love dogs, some have even given up their season tickets because the Eagles signed Vick. They chose dogs over their football team. Let me ask Tommy this question: If you had season tickets for the Gators, would you throw them away if Brandon Spikes had a dog fighting ring?
I ask that you retract his sixth paragraph about Philadelphia's people and apologize to me and all of the students families you have insulted. I would much rather speak to Maple personally, but he doesn't have the face of a brave man. I am very interested to know where he is from, so I can Google ugly incidents that happened in his hometown as well. I do not expect him to reply, but would love to hear from him. Alligator staff: Please, for the sake of others, do not print garbage that insults your student community.
