And I thought it was bad enough here in Gainesville during the Urban Meyer/Tim Tebow era, with any criticism of the two local football demigod/heroes met with angry rebuffs. But we're quite reasonable here in comparison to the lunacy currently transpiring at Penn State University, which last night fired its long-time head football coach Joe Paterno.
You see, in 2002 Paterno received direct information from an eyewitness who saw his former assistant defensive coach Jerry Sandusky RAPING a little boy in an athletic-area shower on campus. All Paterno did was to perfunctorily refer the matter to his "superior", athletic director Tim Curley. Curley essentially sat on his hands and not only covered up this atrocity without contacting the police, but also continued to allow Sandusky on campus, although he was under "university" orders not to bring any of "his boys" with him (that rule in itself was incredibly bizarre: the suspected serial rapist can appear on campus, but his victims can't). I have no doubt that Paterno must have encountered his old colleague on numerous occasions during that time, but he apparently decided that the welfare of little children was trivial in comparison to his good-old-boy relationships, even if one of the good-old-boys happened to be a sexual predator. In response to Paterno's apathy and inaction, the board at Penn State in charge of firing people did just that last night: they fired Paterno. So what was the reaction around Penn State?
I'd like to think that people around campus felt a little shame and a lot of letdown that their revered authority figures allowed something this horrible to go on for so long (the 40-count indictment against Sandusky spans 15 years, from 1994 to 2009). Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Instead, students are taking to the streets and angrily demonstrating, not for the young victims, but rather for Paterno, who helped to enable this to continue by conveniently looking the other way. And I heard snippets of the press conference there last night when the firing was announced. The local reporters there were just as irrational as the students, angrily telling the college official there that Paterno was being treated unfairly (once again without expressing any concern for the little boys who suffered these crimes).
When I think of the shame that supposedly responsible people at this once highly respected university have brought down upon it, I then look at its student body and local media. Don't they see that they are magnifying their disgrace to the world?
Penn State? No, how about Psycho State!!!
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