Many people in Pennsylvania, indeed around the country, are looking at the Penn State Board of Trustees with alot of anger in their eyes over the recent firing of legendary football coach Joe Paterno. Why are they trying to blame such a great man as Paterno with any wrongdoing in these unfortunate events? How can anyone possibly think that someone of Joe Paterno’s stature and national reputation could possibly have known anything about Jerry Sandusky’s dirty little secret?
Well, now that I’ve read the Grand Jury’s findings, looked at all the evidence that we are allowed to look at, and used my own personal life lessons as a guide, I can tell you how. People in positions of authority, like former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, are held to a higher standard than most. We expected more out of good ole’ Joe than he gave. As a matter of fact, we expected more out of Mike McQueary than he gave.
Upon seeing a ten year old child being raped by an old man in a locker room shower, how many of us would have tucked tail and ran? How many of us would have went crying to their daddy looking for the right thing to do? We also expected more out of Korean War veteran, James (Jim) Calhoun, who tucked tail and ran when he saw an eleven year old boy being sodomized by an old man in a locker room shower. We expected Mike McQueary and James Calhoun to put on their ass kicking shoes and go into that shower and save those little boys. Both of those days our good coach Sandusky should have been picking his teeth up off of the shower floor.
We would hope, even expect, that if it were our child in that shower, that someone, somewhere, would have had the courage to come in there and save them from that demon. So let’s not look too harshly on 84 year old Joe Paterno. After all, he didn’t walk in there and see what was going on and simply tuck tail and run.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/06/sports/ncaafootball/20111106-pennstate-document.html