What He Said

[moragmacpherson]

I don't normally look to sportswriters for particularly insightful social commentary (with the notable exceptions of the late Hunter S. Thompson and the late Ralph Wiley). I particularly don't usually look for it at CBS Sports—home of Jimmy 'the Greek' Snyder, whose coworkers maintain to this day that they didn't think he was particularly racist). But this Dan Bernstein article on the child-molestation scandal and (repeated!) cover ups at Penn State is... well, I'll let it speak for itself:

The Devil is in the details. They hurt to read, I won’t lie to you. You cannot un-know them or un-see them. You will stop multiple times in the 23 pages of the grand jury report, needing to avert your eyes or shudder. But you have to do it. You have to read every word, every sickening description and every name involved in the institutionalized evil at Penn State. Your opinion about anything going on is invalid if you have not yet done so. Here it is. Read it. You are simply not allowed to say “I don’t want to,” or “I can’t handle it.” Jerry Sandusky’s victims and their families endured – and continue to endure — unspeakable horror. The least you can do is be as informed as possible about the hideousness in Happy Valley. It will sear your soul, and it’s your obligation to confront the truth at its most real and painful. Relying on watered-down characterization of the acts is a cop-out... ... Do not dare to call a radio show, send an email, post on social media, or comment at the conclusion of this column until you have taken the time to read every word. Until you do, nothing you think or say matters one iota... ... Most importantly, we must stop with comfortable euphemisms that ease the pain of confronting these brutal crimes. This is not “horseplay,” or “inappropriate acts,” or even “sodomy.” It’s worse. We have a solemn responsibility to expose these infections to sunlight, trying as hard as we can to understand as much as we can. You will not think as you did before. You saw the idiot students chanting football cheers last night on Paterno’s lawn, and have heard from the cult of apologists. You will want to kill all of them.

Read Bernstein's whole article here. Then steel your stomach and read the grand jury report.  And when some idiot friend/co-worker/relative tries to play apologist for Joe Paterno over the next couple of weeks or at Thanksgiving, cry 'havoc' and let slip the dogs of war. 

Comments

[jaimeykay.livejournal.com]

Ugh, one of my students went to Penn State for a few years and tried to claim that Paterno had "nothing to do with it". I was like UM WRONG. Fuck off. Anyone who lets evil go on is a piece of shit and I have no other words for them. Must be nice to live in blissful ignorance.

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I'm willing to bet your student hasn't read the grand jury report. Paterno has no claim to ignorance (blissful or otherwise) as a defense. Half of these assaults took place in Penn State's facilities. Sandusky must not have worried about the consequences of getting caught. I wonder why.

And the euphemisms and watered down language being used by most of the media coverage is just enabling the apologists. Paterno's reactions are totally defensible! What more could he have done? How many times do you have to hear about how your acquaintance of thirty years keeps using your locker room to behave inappropriately with minors have sex with ten year olds before you call the police? Oh, wait: in 1998 the police investigated and Sandusky admitted that he touched a minor inappropriately fondled a ten year old's genitals in Paterno's showers, but, huh, the D.A. decided not to press charges. Well, I guess in 2002 when Paterno had another person report that he'd just watched Sandusky doing something sexual with a young boy having anal sex with a ten year old in the football team's locker room showers, Paterno must have figured that going to the police hadn't worked last time, so he didn't have to bother this time! May as well just tell the Athletic Director about it so he can warn the VP of finance in case the kid sues and offer the witness, Mike McQueary, an assistant coaching job. Let's not involve the police just because your former employee, the head of a major youth charity, was behaving suspiciously with a minor GOT CAUGHT FUCKING A TEN YEAR OLD IN THE ASS IN THE PENN STATE FOOTBALL TEAM'S LOCKER ROOM SHOWERS—AGAINFOR THE THIRD TIME IN FOUR YEARS!

It's just another sex scandal. Can't let it get in the way of the football season.

[jaimeykay.livejournal.com]

Definitely not. I wish I were able to have said more about it, but it wasn't my place and wasn't relevant to the class. I was still so mad that I couldn't sleep for a while last night.

Exactly, I'm tired of this bullshit. I don't care that you told someone who ISN'T THE POLICE. Why would you think ~passing the info on~ means that you're free to go skip back to your office guilt free? I can't even be happy that Paterno was fired - well, I kind of am, because at least he wasn't allowed to retire like a fucking cowardly weasel, but still. Our system fails in a lot of ways, but holy shit Batman, don't try to cover it up even further. JFC.

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I made the mistake of clicking on a link to an old picture of one of the victims presented as one of Sandusky's rescued kids. I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep for a week... his expression is heartbreaking.

There is no level of society that hasn't failed these children already. I'm thrilled they fired the weasel and the even more weasely ex-President (at least Paterno's pretending that he's remorseful for his inaction). Now they just need to fire all the people who covered for Sandusky at the charity, the police department that dropped the investigation, and about half of the administrators at the college. Have the NCAA give the sports scholarship kids penalty-free transfers and nuke the entire athletic department from orbit, just to be sure. And then the Board of Trustees should resign in shame for allowing this to happen on their watch.