Some of my anger goes toward the school administrators that covered this up and the board of directors that seems to be concerned now with covering their own asses. They have been formally charged and will, most likely, pay for their role in the cover up. The one person caught in limbo is, the head coach, Joe Paterno.
Though it seems clear that, when Paterno became aware of the situation he passed it along to his superiors thus fulfilling his legal obligation, he stopped there. He never followed up and more importantly let Sandusky continue on in the school for years. For Paterno to say now that if the allegations are true, "we were all fooled" is a total joke. He obviously knew about something. It shouldn't come as a surprise to him, since he was involved in the legal chain when the allegations were first brought to him.
Now Paterno is going to retire and save the school the effort of asking him to resign, right after he coaches the last game of the season because he is, "devastated." Is this guy for real? Talk about not getting it. The school shouldn't let him get away with walking out on his terms, given the situation. They should remove him immediately pending a full scale investigation.
Finally, my extreme anger is directed at the Penn State family and a large number of the students. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that I have a number of friends who went to Penn State. They should not count themselves as part of this tirade as I've not seen or heard them say anything along the lines of the following. With that out of the way, let's take a moment to consider what the student body and alumni have done since this scandal unfolded. They have taken to organizing outside Paterno's house in show of solidarity and support as well as echoing the Penn State rallying cry, "WE ARE...PENN STATE!" I can understand the love for Paterno, he is nearly a god in Happy Valley, but the support is misplaced. He may not have molested anyone, but he certainly has to be counted as an accomplice to the cover up for not taking more steps to ensure something was done about Sandusky. He should not be supported and should not be allowed to get off so easily.
The Penn State alumni that are portraying the PSU community as the victims are crazy for this and their continued admiration for the disgraced leader is absurd. Paterno must shoulder blame and using the rallying cry in this context should be re thought. Paterno put the school, and to an extent himself, above the welfare of children. The collective attitude of "We are!..." is the mindset that school officials subscribed to when they swept this under the carpet in the first place. I don't even know what it means that PSU folks are using this as some kind of rallying cry. Basically these actions amount to them saying, "we just found out one of our uncles was a child molester and our dad and other uncles have kept it hush hush all these years, but we are still a determined happy family and have some sympathy for us that we just found out there is a wolf in the fold." Have some humility and respect for the victims. This isn't about you and the school right now. If anything I would be ashamed to count myself as a part of this family right now. Blindly flocking to support the school is the worst possible action that can be taken right now.
To me, this is an indirect endorsement of the what has transpired. If I was part of the student body or alumni, I would be calling for people's heads and for those responsible to be tossed out the door at the first opportunity. The rallying cry starts with, "we are..." Perhaps it is time for PSU to take a hard look and find out what they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment