When Mark Wahlberg was 16 years old, he tried to rob a man who was carrying two cases of beer. He beat the man with a stick. He called the man a “Vietnamese f-cking sh-t”. Then he fled the scene and ran into another man, also Vietnamese. Marky Mark ended up punching this man in the eye. When he was finally arrested, an unprovoked Marky Mark started calling his victims “gooks” and “slant-eyed gooks”. Oh, and the man he punched in the eye? He went blind in that eye. Marky Mark hit him so hard he LOST VISION PERMANENTLY IN THAT EYE. Mark went to jail for 45 days.
Now? Mark Wahlberg wants a pardon. He’s submitted a formal request to the Massachusetts Board of Pardons. The Board is expected to review the petition and, if they decide that it has merit, will recommend the application to the governor for approval.
Wahlberg is arguing that he’s a philanthropist now, that all the good he’s done in the time since his crimes, including giving back to the community, with the money he’s made as a celebrated movie star, is enough to have his record cleared. He writes:
"I have not engaged in philanthropic efforts in order to make people forget about my past. To the contrary, I want people to remember my past so that I can serve as an example of how lives can be turned around and how people can be redeemed. The more complex answer is that receiving a pardon would be a formal recognition that I am not the same person that I was on the night of April 8, 1988. It would be formal recognition that someone like me can receive official public redemption if he devotes himself to personal improvement and a life of good works."
So he wants to be an example. Has he apologised to his victims? Has he helped them? This, from an interview with ABC News in 2006 should answer that question:
And though the right thing to do would be to try to find the man and make amends, Wahlberg says, he admits he hasn't done so -- but says he's no longer burdened by guilt.
"I did a lot of things that I regretted and I certainly paid for my mistakes," Wahlberg says. "You have to go and ask for forgiveness and it wasn't until I really started doing good and doing right, by other people as well as myself, that I really started to feel that guilt go away. So I don't have a problem going to sleep at night. I feel good when I wake up in the morning."
Good to know that he sleeps well and wakes up even better. There’s a man out there who sleeps with one eye and wakes up not being able to see out of it…FOREVER. But, sure, Marky Mark. You rest easy there, OK? That’s what’s important.
But it’s not enough. It’s never enough. He’s a Hollywood mogul now. He has everything he wants. He has peace and wealth and influence and power. So…why not a pardon? Apparently he needs one so that he can “get a concessionaire's license to help him with his restaurant businesses, and he'd like to be able to help law enforcement, working with at-risk kids”. (Source)
OHHHHHHH….
So the pardon would help him make even MORE money?
Well if that’s not Celebrity F-CKING Entitlement, I don’t know what is.
I gave all this money to charities! I built a playground! I supported some schools! Don’t I deserve it all? Even though I blinded a man, don’t I deserve …everything? I want everything. Why shouldn’t I have everything?
I’VE EARNED IT.
Imagine how that man feels every day when he looks in the mirror out of his one good eye? Knowing that Marky Mark has both his eyes and MORE, MORE than that man could ever dream to have, and now wants to take away that moment that led him to a life of permanent limited vision. How would you feel?
Why should anyone give a f-ck about how Marky Mark feels?
Can we ask the man he blinded if Marky Mark deserves a pardon? That should be the criteria. Let the blinded man come forward. Let him tell his story. Let him talk about whether or not Marky Mark has made up for what he took. Let him tell the world how Marky Mark helped his family, compensated him for his lost potential, supported his children, his parents, his brothers, his sisters. Let the blinded man speak to Marky Mark’s character. I want to hear that story. If we heard that story, maybe. So far though, I haven’t heard that story. So far, the only story I’m hearing is that Marky Mark, who wants for nothing, still wants.
How the world is supposed to work: you make a mistake, you accept the fact that that mistake is a scar on your personal record, a reminder of what you did, of how you hurt and who you hurt. And the right thing to do is not to try to erase that mark but to let it remind you, when you achieve great things, that you can be better than your worst moment.
How the world works for a spoiled celebrity douchebag: you make a mistake, you hardly atone for that mistake, you throw money at your mistake to bury your mistake, you live in a world where no one calls you on your mistakes, and then you decide the mistake shouldn’t exist anymore and you try to rewrite history.
Mark Wahlberg claims he’s a changed man. That he’s asking for this pardon just proved he isn’t. That he even thinks he deserves a pardon just proves that he has no concept of the true meaning of remorse, accountability, and forgiveness. All he wants is MORE. It’s Hollywood’s favourite word.
Click here to read about all the other sh-t Mark Wahlberg has done and what he’s been able to “overcome”. Mark Wahlberg has a great career. Mark Wahlberg has a family. Mark Wahlberg has a great life. Mark Wahlberg has had his second chance. He doesn’t need a goddamn pardon.
