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.
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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.
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moragmacpherson) wrote2011-11-09 06:12 pm
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But defending the people who witnessed it and did nothing because they're in charge of your favorite football team? That's an attitude that's damning of American society in general. And so we must read this, because ignoring it is the greater evil.
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charity workvictim pool.