Friday, November 11, 2011

Pig Penn State

Joe Paterno certainly had Jerry Sandusky's back in 2002

I'm heartbroken and perplexed as to why everyone isn't on board with Penn State's decision to fire legendary football coach Joe Paterno. I'm well aware of how beloved he is, but here are the facts: In 2002, Paterno was TOLD by a 28-year-old graduate assistant that he had witnessed Paterno's friend and former associate Jerry Sandusky anally raping a 10-year-old boy in the university's locker room showers. Paterno reported this to the school's athletic director, Tim Curley, but never called the police -- and he never even followed up with Curley to see what was being done. Nothing. Sandusky, a married father of six adopted children and countless foster kids -- God only knows what was going on there -- has now been charged with sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years, but one can only imagine how many others were raped and abused in the intervening years. (New reports claim Sandusky may have also been "pimping out" these boys, who he met through his charity for underprivileged boys.) While I agree that the graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, should also be fired -- not only did he also not call the police, he didn't even scream or stop the 58-year-old from continuing to rape the boy, and he waited until the following day to tell his boss (what a fucking idiot) -- but Joe Paterno IS Penn State football and could have had the attorney general on the phone if he had cared even the slightest bit about that little boy. Paterno has an incredible record and a stellar reputation. But with great power comes great responsibility, and it's impossible not to think that he was putting his team and his legacy before the welfare of a small child, and for that he deserves what he got.

I just wish these football-loving Penn State students -- who have turned violent in their support of their coach -- would stop for one second and think about these young victims, and how they would feel if it were their little brother or nephew who had been sodomized while the most powerful man at their school did the absolute bare minimum he had to. Part of me thinks a lot of them continue to stand by JoePa because they don't know EXACTLY what happened -- and for this I blame the media for tiptoeing around the subject. (Has anyone else noticed this?) Ed Schultz had finally had enough last night, and said, "I'm just going to say it, he saw Sandusky screwing a boy in the shower and didn't try to stop him."

The whole thing is just heartbreaking . Penn State needs to scrap the rest of its season and finally start to do whatever it can to begin to right this wrong.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Emil anonymously said I know JoePa IS Penn State but I was gratified to see they also fired the president of the university.

George Safford said...

I think we all need to let the criminal justice system work before we jump to conclusions. Should Penn State done more to protect the young boys given the indictments that have been handed down? Yes they should have, and could have. But to condemn everyone off the bat is wrong as well. And then to go on to condemn people who don't agree with your position is still a further wrong.

The blame game is twisted. Let the system work.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@George: While I agree with your sentiment about the criminal justice system, you seem to forget that there has been a "system" in place long before this fine country was formed: the system of PROTECTING CHILDREN from being abused. (I'd bet my life that if a caveman saw a child being brutally assaulted, he would intervene.)

You don't need to have been convicted of a crime for someone to stop you in the act of raping a child. And if you know about this and let someone continue to rape dozens -- possibly hundreds -- of others, you're equally culpable. If it makes people who think like me "further wrong" to condemn people who aid and abet child rapists, then I'm more than willing to live with that.

Anonymous said...

Because Penn State's total identity is Penn State football and Joe Paterno. Sad...always has been.

Anonymous said...

Living in Durham, I have to mention the lacrosse coach that was fired from Duke when members of his team were accused of raping (why is it "molesting" boys in this case and not raping) a stripper. Turned out the players were innocent and the coach had been wrongly fired in the race to justice. While it seems the events did happen in this case (I never for a day believed the Duke case), I always feel a bit uneasy about punishments being dolled out before convictions.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't the graduate student's account to Paterno much, much vaguer than the one he gave the grand jury? Paterno reported that and left it the administration's hands. Without knowing (or probably able to conceive) of the awfulness that was actually witnessed and not told him, I can see a senior citizen believing it had been handled and not asking for more detail...

swine said...

The one I really don't get here is Mike McQueary. How do u witness a little boy being raped by someone u know & do nothing to stop it -- just walk away? All these idiots saying what a nice guy he is. He's had a very nice career by keeping his mouth shut. He's as vile as the others.

Anonymous said...

Well said Kenneth, I only hope that justice will be served for all involved (I think we are going to find out many more were involved in this) and that the victims can find some peace and begin to heal.

Anonymous said...

Well said Kenneth, I only hope that justice will be served for all involved (I think we are going to find out many more were involved in this) and that the victims can find some peace and begin to heal.

robb said...

i finally saw it addressed yesterday when they put mcqueary on administrative leave that he may have whistleblower protection status from being fired.

i was thinking about that for awhile whenever anyone tried to lump him in with paterno. i don't think he was part of the administration when he first witnessed the act and obviously did not/does not carry the weight that paterno did/does, so should he share the same responsibility as the head of the football team?

i really don't think so. if you fire people that report things, why would anyone come forward?

Mark said...

I can see some merit to Swine's comment about McCreary's failure to stop the rape-in-progress. However, it's easy for us, who were not there, to sit in judgment on the one person who was. One has to bear in mind that if McCreary's report were disbelieved, Sandusky probably could have wrecked McCreary's entire career. You might be amazed at how many times whistle-blowing doesn't work out so well for the whistle blower. I give McCreary credit for at least making the report. I imagine that over the years there may have been others who saw inappropriate things between Sandusky and the boys, but who said nothing.

As to KW's comment about the rape of "possibly hundreds," I doubt that the magnitude is that great. Reading the grand jury's presentment, it appears that even though Sandusky was a horrible predator, whenever a boy actively pushed back against his advances, Sandusky backed off. Accordingly, so far as the evidence indicates, this is more statutory rape than forcible rape. Still thoroughly depraved and deplorable.

JD said...

The appropriate thing for McQueary to have done as the boy was being raped was to grab the nearest heavy object and bash Sandusky over the head with it. To do anything BUT stop the rape-in-progress was cowardly and evil. It seems like no one in Penn State athletics at the time behaved with any degree of honor.