Thursday, November 10, 2011

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Penn State did the once unthinkable---it fired Joe Paterno. Paterno left the board no choice. He had a chance to resign gracefully, do what's best for his beloved university, but he didn't. Paterno announced he'd retire at the end of the season. As I've been saying since Monday morning, there was no way Paterno could coach another game at Penn State. Period. The man is a legend, but he's also human. And Paterno allowed an alleged child predator continued access to more potential victims. He could have done the right thing. He didn't. Paterno put the program first. It will forever tarnish his legacy. And should. I'm not without some sympathy for how much it obviously hurts this proud man that he won't get to go out on his own terms, but if you want to be a great man, you have to put morality ahead of The Program.

President Graham Spanier, ISU alum, is also out. He says he didn't know what was going on. Doesn't matter when the people under you fail to this magnitude. Especially if you back your athletic director and vice president as their being arrested for perjury.

What happens to Mike McQueary, the assistant coach who reportedly saw Sandusky raping a young boy in the shower? McQueary reported the incident to Paterno, but never called police either. McQueary also made no known attempt to identify or check on the welfare of the victim. McQueary later saw Sandusky many times at the football facilities, but continued looking the other way. How can McQueary coach another game at Penn State? He needs to go too. He was put in an unfortunate, unthinkable predicament, but he failed. Most of all, he failed the victim, as did all in the know at Penn State. This is what happens when power corrupts and values are compromised.

Jerry Sandusky will live his hell in court, then likely prison, followed potentially by hell itself.

I hate this story. It's infuriating, depressing, and tragic. It will forever be a cautionary tale of putting the interests of self ahead of what's right and decent.

Paterno did end this long, sad day the right way. He said we should all pray for the victims.

9 comments:

Sincerely, Jenni said...

If McQueary cannot look Victim #1 in the eye and say he did everything he could to stop Sandusky when he saw what was going on that night, then he needs to be fired. Period. There's no excuse for that. He should be ashamed of himself, and I can't believe he hasn't resigned simply out of embarrassment.

Anonymous said...

I'm saddened and sickened by the mobs of Penn State students who are outraged over the firing of Paterno. Where are their moral compasses??? It's times like these when I really worry about America.

Anonymous said...

Well said Keith!

Purdy Weird said...

Change the scenario around a tad bit. Say McQeary heard noise, investigated, and found Sandusky punching and assaulting a ten year old boy. Wouldn't anybody, including McQeary step in to stop the assault? Maybe even decking Sandusky and rescuing the child? McQeary has no moral compass. He is just as guilty, if not more so than Paterno and others. He needs to be fired now! And sued in civil court by the victim(s) and family(s)

Anonymous said...

And here I thought Iowa was supposed to be accepting of alternative sexual behavior. Judging from the comments here, I guess not.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Sandusky is still a sick perv. But I'm trying to make a point. It's ok to get upset about this, but it's wrong to oppose same-sex marriage? That just seems odd to me. Either you oppose deviant behavior or you don't. Pretty simple.

Scott said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott said...

The last two "anonymous" comments are obviously missing the point by trying to inject the story with their personal prejudices. Ignoring the shear idiotic nature of those allusions, one can't help but wonder - why are you trying to take the story away from the children at Penn State? this is exactly what the rioting Penn State students did, they took the real root of the story away from what matters and tried to bring in their own personal agendas.

Assaulting children is a crime, it isn't about sex, it isn't about love, and it isn't a sexual orientation - it's a philia, it's power. It was power and stature of those involved that corrupted them into not doing the right thing. This story clearly has more room to expand... we have yet to get answers in the disappearance of the district attorney from years ago, and the apparent deliberate destruction of his computer.

This has nothing to do with Iowa, and everything to do with those kids, the ones that tried to cover it up, the ones that looked away, and mystery surrounding the first investigation. If you ignore those things and instead focus on trying to connect this to something totally unrelated, you have missed the point.

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