Joe Paterno, who, you must already know, died at age 85 January 22, has had a tremendous amount of news coverage since that death. A ridiculous amount of coverage of his funeral, for example. Maybe a reasonable amount of coverage considering his vast accomplishments in football coaching and charitable giving. Most glaringly, however, is the shockingly little coverage of his failure to do the right thing when the right thing was most in need of being done.
And you already know what that is, too. Call the police, er, the real police, not the University police, when Mike McQueary told him he saw Jerry Sandusky sodomizing a child in the football showers. Paterno claimed that McQueary just claimed to have witnessed an “incident,” so somehow just reporting this to Athletic Director Tim Curley was enough action. I don’t understand how, even if McQueary didn’t say the words “raping,” “sodomizing,” “having sex with,” “messing around with,” Paterno didn’t do a double take and say “WHAT??? What the hell do you mean, an incident? What the hell did you see???” and then called the police. The Grand Jury in 2002 certainly had enough information to get a pretty darn good idea what had been going on in that shower. And I don’t buy for one minute that this was the only peep of pedophilia Paterno had heard regarding Sandusky over all those years.
The reputation of Penn State was the most important issue. Paterno was an integral part of the University Ubermensch, and he did his duty as such. Keep it quiet, don’t say anything to anyone. And so they did, they all kept it quiet and didn’t say anything to anyone, while God knows how many boys were raped, humiliated, and stripped of their innocence by a monstrous, raging pervert.
How can a man who colluded in a cover-up of the violation of children be so blindly hailed as a near saint? He may have been one of the greatest college football coaches in history, he may have been a great donator of money to charities, but when he had the chance to do the most important thing any of us could ever have a chance to do — protect a child who is being harmed — he passed.
The overwhelming questions should not have been so overwhelming if Paterno was the man who was so excessively celebrated this week; such a man should never have had any indecision on the subject of protecting children; such a man never should have made wrong decisions so in need of revisions that were, of course, never made, despite there having been the time. Paterno should have dared to disturb the universe of Penn State, and it shouldn’t have been so daring a thing, to protect children. At the end, when all the efforts at concealment, when all the hushes had proved in vain, when all the thin walls came crashing down to reveal the ugly truth, I wonder if it was worth it for Paterno, worth it after all.
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Joe Paterno: He Didn’t Dare Disturb the University
In News commentary on January 27, 2012 at 2:26 pmJoe Paterno, who, you must already know, died at age 85 January 22, has had a tremendous amount of news coverage since that death. A ridiculous amount of coverage of his funeral, for example. Maybe a reasonable amount of coverage considering his vast accomplishments in football coaching and charitable giving. Most glaringly, however, is the shockingly little coverage of his failure to do the right thing when the right thing was most in need of being done.
And you already know what that is, too. Call the police, er, the real police, not the University police, when Mike McQueary told him he saw Jerry Sandusky sodomizing a child in the football showers. Paterno claimed that McQueary just claimed to have witnessed an “incident,” so somehow just reporting this to Athletic Director Tim Curley was enough action. I don’t understand how, even if McQueary didn’t say the words “raping,” “sodomizing,” “having sex with,” “messing around with,” Paterno didn’t do a double take and say “WHAT??? What the hell do you mean, an incident? What the hell did you see???” and then called the police. The Grand Jury in 2002 certainly had enough information to get a pretty darn good idea what had been going on in that shower. And I don’t buy for one minute that this was the only peep of pedophilia Paterno had heard regarding Sandusky over all those years.
The reputation of Penn State was the most important issue. Paterno was an integral part of the University Ubermensch, and he did his duty as such. Keep it quiet, don’t say anything to anyone. And so they did, they all kept it quiet and didn’t say anything to anyone, while God knows how many boys were raped, humiliated, and stripped of their innocence by a monstrous, raging pervert.
How can a man who colluded in a cover-up of the violation of children be so blindly hailed as a near saint? He may have been one of the greatest college football coaches in history, he may have been a great donator of money to charities, but when he had the chance to do the most important thing any of us could ever have a chance to do — protect a child who is being harmed — he passed.
The overwhelming questions should not have been so overwhelming if Paterno was the man who was so excessively celebrated this week; such a man should never have had any indecision on the subject of protecting children; such a man never should have made wrong decisions so in need of revisions that were, of course, never made, despite there having been the time. Paterno should have dared to disturb the universe of Penn State, and it shouldn’t have been so daring a thing, to protect children. At the end, when all the efforts at concealment, when all the hushes had proved in vain, when all the thin walls came crashing down to reveal the ugly truth, I wonder if it was worth it for Paterno, worth it after all.
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