You Reap What You Sow

It's hard to shock me. I mean really hard. I think for whatever reason I have always been able to look at things straight on for what they are and I have sort of always known that the good, the bad and the ugly all exist in this world, all mixed up together. And it's messy. End of the day, I suppose I don't see the point in being shocked. I'm not sure where I get that from. Doesn't really matter, I guess.

But this week, I'm flat out shocked by the horrible turn of events coming out of Penn State. It's obviously just starting and after the initial jolt, I'm not going to be shocked when it gets worse. Much worse. Because there's no way it's not going in the direction of worse.

Obviously I'm shocked by the evil actions perpetrated against children. There really just aren't any words...

But beyond that, I am shocked by where some people are focusing their anger and outrage. To be blunt, I can’t believe that there are people standing up to protest the firing of Joe Paterno based solely on what he contributed to Penn State football. I’m sorry, but that kind of reasoning does not fly in this household. I mean, if someone said that we should let him stay a few more months because he’s “this close” to a cure for cancer, I would be at least willing to dialogue on the concept of “conditional good”. To be fair, I’ll say that it wouldn’t be a lengthy discussion, because I'm not a big fan of "conditional good", but I’d listen to an opinion.

But try to engage me with the idea that anything related to football can offset the fact that someone didn’t go all out to protect children from a predator? Ummm… yeah... that ain’t happening. Even if someone wasn’t sure, even if there was doubt, (and based on Paterno’s own statements, it doesn’t seem to me that there was any doubt), there was an unequivocal, moral responsibility to report TO THE AUTHORITIES and let those authorities and the legal system make the determination.

The adults in this situation, including Joe Paterno failed. They had a choice to take definitive action to protect children and they failed. That failure gave a monster almost 9 more years of freedom to commit evil. Paterno isn’t the first to fall. I would highly doubt that he’s going to be the last. But he brought this on himself. There are some failures where you pay the price. Period.

Side comment to the students who are causing all the chaos and fuss over this firing - Grow up. Joe Paterno is not a victim. His firing was not “unconscionable” as I heard one student claim. There were many “unconscionable” acts that took place in this situation. That wasn’t one of them. Joe Paterno was in a position of great authority. That means he was also in a position of great responsibility and he looked the other way when that responsibility called. Hopefully at some point the nation will see you all out there raising your voices on behalf of the true victims of this horror.