The bottom line regarding this particular issue is that Joe Paterno, for all of his accomplishments, successes, and victories, failed when it mattered most. I know people are outraged about his fate because he was not directly responsible for abusing those children. "It's not like he's the one who raped them" they'll say. And they are correct. He was not the one in the shower with the 10 year old boy. He did not use his influence and power to prey upon young children. But all of those things happened on his watch. And when he found out about it, he fulfilled his legal obligation by telling his boss. But in a case like this, where children's lives are involved, where safety, trust and innocence were so thoroughly violated and broken, Joe Paterno had more than a legal obligation. Joe Paterno was morally bound to verify the report when it was brought to him. He was morally obligated to put a stop to it when he discovered it and he was morally obligated to report it to the authorities and bring it to light as quickly and openly as possible. He covered his a$$ by telling his boss but he should have done more. He admitted as much when he finally spoke yesterday informing the world that he would so graciously retire at the end of the season.
For all those people who are rioting on campus and voicing their outrage over Paterno's firing, I have one question for you. What if it was your son, brother, nephew, cousin or friend who had been abused? I know the answer to that question already and so do you. The abuse and the way it was handled are bad enough. What's worse is that people are blindly protesting for and defending a man who is not worthy of such outrage. These protests are not about fairness or right and wrong, they're about football. The campus rioters are defending the athletic tradition of the Penn State football program; nothing more. If this was truly about fairness and protesting injustice, then why are there no protesters outside the home and office of the fired university president? Why aren't they chanting his name like mindless sheep? I'm guessing that most of them don't even know the president's name, let alone care that he too was fired over this scandal.
Sports has often caused fans to elevate those who achieve great success. Athletes and coaches in some cases, often get slaps on the wrist for crimes the rest of us would do significant time for. But in this case, I'm glad the board of trustees at Penn State had enough guts to do what they did. But let's be clear, the firing of Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spainier are both C.Y.A. moves by the University. They're doing what they can to minimize the impact of the litigation that's sure to come. But even if it's for the wrong reasons, they did the right thing.
The lives of children are more important than football legacies, championships and reputations. Joe Paterno did a lot of good over the course of the 46 years he served as head football coach at Penn State University. He was arguably the biggest icon in college football and certainly the biggest icon at Penn State. But with iconic status comes iconic responsibility. To whom much is given, much is required and when faced with the greatest challenge of his career, he was not legendary; he wasn't iconic. He was a man who did much less than he should have to stop and rectify abuse that happened on his watch. He's fortunate that the only thing he lost was his job. The children that his assistant coach abused have lost much much more than that. If Joe Paterno had put as much effort and energy into defending those children as his legions of fans are exerting to protest his firing then perhaps more abuse could have been prevented. Better yet, if the protesters themselves devoted as much energy and outrage to defending the abused as they are in defending their beloved coach, then maybe the victims road to recovery might be less bumpy.
No comments:
Post a Comment