Talking About Penn State

I had another post all ready to go, but then I just had to talk about Penn State.

It's not a racial issue, at least not that I know of, although that could change if it turns out this coach was preying on poor little black boys because that will only make things worse. For those of you who have been avoiding the news, Penn State Coach Joe Paterno has been fired, along with the university president, after the Board of Trustees determined they behaved inappropriately in allowing a former football coach to systematically molest young boys using Penn State as a lure.

The decision, which was the only correct one if you read this grand jury report, has sparked outrage among Penn State students who have actually had mini riots in the streets.

And that's what I want to talk about in this post.

See, I've gone over this in my mind, and I can't figure out how intelligent, thinking people could take the actions those students in Penn State took last night. Nobody, NOBODY, who read that grand jury report with a working conscience could believe that Paterno deserved to keep his job. In fact, there should have been mass firings as a result of the allegations made, mainly because there is easily verifiable proof of their veracity.

Yet, these students marched, and chanted and spouted idiotic rhetoric that has made me severely question their intelligence and the well-being of a world where they will be given responsibility. It made me question their parents and their schools, and the values they hold dear.

When adults decide to allow another adult to engage in behavior like showering naked with children, they are wrong. There is no middle ground. You cannot allow someone to behave in that manner, and continue to allow them to be around you and your organization. You cannot decide to avoid reporting them to child welfare agencies. You cannot decide to give them more chances to hurt children. If you make any of those decisions, you have condoned the abuse of children, and you deserve no sympathy and no succor.

That report alleges that Paterno and others ignored signs of molestation, and swept a report of anal rape of child under the rug rather than take an action that would have resulted in outrage, pain and, most importantly, bad publicity. They chose to protect their livelihoods and reputations rather than save children from easily avoided pain. And for that, they are evil.

Anyone who not only refuses to acknowledge this, but defends their actions as "following the rules" is a person whose morality is lacking. If you honestly believe that Paterno "didn't know" or "did what he could" on a campus where he was only a step below God, then I don't just question your intelligence, I doubt its existence and the existence of a true moral compass in your bosom.

Watching students who are supposedly engaged in the activity of educating themselves take the actions those students took last night brings into the doubt the educational mission of Penn State, and the parenting of parents who send their children there. It is a system failure on a massive scale, and that's what people need to be talking about today.



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