The eyes of the Nittany Lion monument appear to stare home in sadness.
Yesterday an old Mississippi friend from my graduate school days at Tulane University (Mary Neal Brown) sent me a link to the most focused and well written essay on what really steered the collectively growing tragedy of Happy Valley. As far as I’m concerned, this piece by writer Michelle Richmond nailed the central issue of what really drove the culture of denial and avoidance to mishandle the issue as they did better than any other article I’ve read, so far. In effect, the suffering of the raped child was put aside for the supposed protection of everyone else who busily lived out the illusion of “Happy Valley” outside the stain of a potentially horrific scandal.
Here’s the link to the Michelle Richmond assessment of the latest “Great American Tragedy.” Judge it for yourself:
Dealing with the horror of reality would have brought down the house, they reasoned on some individual and collective level. In irony, the house fell of its own weight eventually, doing more damage than it ever could have done early on, had JoePa & Company possessed both the courage and the wisdom to do what should have been done back in 1998: Report the monster, Jerry Sandusky, to the police so that he could have been arrested, tried, and stopped from doing further harm to this child and others.
They didn’t file a police report, leaving this child and others open to continued harm. Now everybody pays the societal tab with interest. And deservedly so.
As a health professional in Texas over the past half century, all I can start with is this general observation: The problem of the current scandal at Penn State is much larger than the boundaries of little “Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.” The sexual abuse of children has become a national crisis. This time, it just happened to explode in a community that included a man held in high regard as a national role model and it also took down the reputation and legacy of this same American icon for not doing more to stop the monster who committed these acts at the earliest recognized point.
Do not be surprised if one of the collateral casualties to come here in the fairly near future is also the life of former Penn State coach Joe Paterno. It will be no surprise if the Jerry Sandusky ugliness ultimately proves to be the literal death of the man they called “JoePa.” It is that devastating.
The main victims are, and shall continue to be, the children who were abused. The damage to their young lives is far more devastating than any harm that has also now surely come to the legacy of a man who had been, until now, one of America’s most beloved sports figures.
Tags: Penn State Scandal of 2011
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The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 12, 2011 at 2:59 pm |
Bill, your analysis is right on; another example of how quickly one’s reputation can be destroyed. Coach Pa spent his entire life vesting in young people’s lives and making these lives, in my opinion, better. However, just one aw shucks and that positive influence is destroyed. How sad!
November 12, 2011 at 3:09 pm |
Dr. Bill:
very well done – keep up the good work
regards to all
PAC
November 12, 2011 at 4:42 pm |
I have been asking (uncomfortably) “could we expect the same thing to happen at other major college football progams? What skeletons are in their closets?”
The irony, of course, is that perhaps the most unthinkable of crimes was allowed to continue at the most “squeaky clean” of football powers – the one that never gets NCAA sanctions, the one that graduates most of their players.
The lesson is that this could have also happened at Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, LSU or any other big-time program where the beast of high expectations and big money contracts demand that things get swept under the rug at times. Unfortunately, in this case, it was vulnerable children who were swept under the rug.
We would all like to think “it could never happen here; not to us.” But it can. What’s worse is that people like Sandusky count on us choosing the welfare of the program to justify looking the other way. Coaches and administrators must redouble their efforts and summon the necessary courage, to expose wrongdoings and let the chips fall where they may.
“But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.” – Luke 12:2
November 12, 2011 at 6:02 pm |
It sickens me, it reminds me of how THE CATHOLIC CHURCH handled things…I can speak of the church
because I am Catholic.
November 12, 2011 at 7:43 pm |
Thank you very much, Bill. A Southern aside–while I grew up in Alabama, my family is from Mississippi and I have many relatives still living there.
November 13, 2011 at 7:19 pm |
Not surprising considering that all college athletics is based on the exploitation of youth.
November 13, 2011 at 10:06 pm |
I do feel sorry for the general Penn State alums and some of the faculty who are rightfully enraged over this matter. I can only imagine how angry I’d be if this was my program. That said, I’ve heard former players and coaches in other programs say in the media that it’s unlikely that any Penn State coach was in the dark about this. That was an incestuous coaching staff, hiring their own, supervised by a man who was a figurehead at best. Joe Pa wasn’t coaching that program. Sentimentality caught up to the clique in Beaver Stadium. Let them all hang. Penn State will forever be like Kent State–remembered for one tragedy. At least Kent’s wasn’t of their own doing, Penn State’s was.