Thoughts about the Penn State scandal

A lot of thoughts on the scandal at Penn State, which seems to get worse every passing day and will in all likelihood get even more gaudy in the future as more details come out.   Since I’m not up to organizing a meaningful post about something that’s being covered from every angle by bloggers more articulate than I, I’ll just settle for a list of my own thoughts on the whole mess:

-    I can’t help but pity Joe Paterno, one of the all-time greatest and most revered college football coaches, who has this devastated look about him of someone that has had their child taken away from them.  Which in a very real sense is what happened – the football team really was Paterno’s child, which he nurtured and fathered for over 40 years.  But the magnitude of his screwup can’t be ignored, and I hope his only sin turns out to be that he delegated it to his higher ups because he couldn’t deal with the ugliness, the hideousness, of the situation.  Unfortunately it’s becoming obvious that there was an orchestrated coverup, with Paterno as a possible participant.  If that turns out to be the case I may have to withdraw my pity.

-    I have absolutely zero pity for the ex-school president and the other two who got busted for failure to report the abuse and perjury in front of a grand jury.  These so-called “gentleman” deserve to be nailed up to the same cross as the perp, for they enabled his disgusting crimes.  I have no doubt in my mind that they covered up the whole mess for at least the past nine years and probably longer.  Jerry Sandusky was once the heir apparent to Paterno’s throne and then he unexpectedly retired at a young age, with no further efforts to return to the college football coaching world.  Read the grand jury testimony by the victims (I won’t provide a link, because it’s not pretty to read) and tell me if there wasn’t a connection between what was going on and Sandusky’s “retirement”.

-    Talk about hard-core denial.  So Jerry Sandusky has the gall to have an interview with Bob Costas and tell the world that even though he made a “mistake” showering with young boys, he wasn’t a pedophile.  Really?  So what would you call yourself then?

-    As bad as the allegations are, there are rumors to even worse things out there.  That he was pimping out young boys as part of a pedophile ring.  If it turns out there’s any truth to this, then he sinks even lower than your garden-variety pedophile.  Maybe we ought to let the mothers of those boys give him the Billy Batts treatment (NSFW).  With a little genital mutilation thrown in (ok, a lot).

-    Alright, it’s OK for me or some other lowly citizen blogger to speak of violent retribution towards a scumbag.  But it’s not OK for Sarah Palin to say it publicly to the press, not if she wants to have any sort of political future.  Yes Sarah, we all know and understand that’s just the protective Mama Bear in you speaking up.  We’re cool with that.  But as a political figure and possible future Presidential candidate, you just can’t say such things in public.  Not if you want your political future to be taken seriously.

-    Oh I’m sorry, is someone out there saying “we can’t judge him because he has yet to be found guilty in a court of law”?  Spare me the lawyer BS.  He’ll get his day in court, and whether by plea or guilty verdict, will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.  In the meantime, he is by-damned guilty in the court of public opinion, judging from the multiple allegations and the grand jury findings.  Or perhaps he’s a victim of the most well-organized character assassination conspiracy I’ve ever heard.  Personally, my vote is for the former.

-    What’s sad is there are probably a lot more victims than the ones that are presently coming forward.  I mean, a LOT more.  The majority of whom may keep silent about what happened to them, through shame, guilt, or a desire to just move on.  This didn’t just start during Sandusky’s tenure as an assistant coach, it likely goes even farther back.  And continued for at least ten years longer than it should, because the Penn State powers-that-be decided to cover up rather than put Sandusky away.  UPDATE: Yep, I told you so. 

-    There’s no sense in asking why nobody reported to the proper authorities, I think that answer is obvious.  The real question is, what were they thinking?  How could they think that it would be better to keep quiet and not say anything rather than turn Sandusky in and publicly distance themselves from him?  And most puzzling of all, that they didn’t stop to think that by not acting, they were condemning God knows how many more young boys to his abuse, because an active pedophile will never stop until completely removed from society?

-    As a final thought, I think the saddest part of this whole episode is that it gives society so much more bias against responsible leaders and adults who work with today’s youth.  That anyone who takes an interest in or tries to help or teach young people will automatically be labeled a potential predator.  That a hysterical attitude of society will prevail, giving rise to draconian rules and laws that will make it virtually impossible for teachers, coaches, and youth leaders to get close to and know their subjects, and offer them the kind of love and guidance that they can’t always get from home.  That today’s kids, particularly those from troubled or dysfunctional homes, will have no adult role model to look up to, to go to for help, for words of wisdom, for an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, or a caring hug.  It looks like such things are going to become forbidden items of the past, and it will be directly the fault of lowlifes in high places like the one Penn State tried to cover up.