Ash writes: "A lot of fingers have been pointed at everyone around Sandusky. Some blame and some soul searching are inevitable. But make no mistake about it, Sandusky's game was built to withstand, actually to make a mockery of, oversight."

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno at State College, Pa., Tuesday, 11/08/11. (photo: Matt Rourke)

A Few Words About Joe Paterno

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

20 August 12

Reader Supported News | Perspective

ow that the dust has settled a bit at Penn State visibility should improve.

Joe Paterno was a rare individual. In his 61 years at Penn State he built what a mountain of money never could have - a vibrant, vital institution, that was as respected and loved as JoePa himself.

What made all that possible was, in a word, integrity. Plain simple values and hard work. It's a formula that has always worked, though we little realize today that it does.

It's time to blame Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was a super-predator. By no means a garden-variety pedophile, Sandusky was highly motivated, immensely powerful, and uniquely insulated. Sandusky's method, by design, was resilient and very difficult to penetrate.

No one that could or should have interceded was prepared for the range of problems that Sandusky presented. Not Paterno, not the Penn State athletic program, not the school's administrators, not the administrators of the charity Sandusky founded, Second Mile, not the organization's multitude of wealthy, powerful and influential benefactors, not the local district attorney, not even former Pennsylvania attorney general, and now Pennsylvania governor, Tom Corbett, who sat on the case in secrecy for nearly three years, and not the NCAA. No one was prepared for Jerry Sandusky.

A lot of fingers have been pointed at everyone around Sandusky. Some blame and some soul searching are inevitable. But make no mistake about it, Sandusky's game was built to withstand, actually to make a mockery of, oversight. It absolutely did.

It was interesting to hear the sermon delivered by the NCAA. When they have a moment they might want to begin addressing their own process of institutionalized student-athlete exploitation. Whose responsibility is it to stop that?

Child abuse, like violence against women or the elderly, is a manifestation of our brutal society. Justice is a commodity, ethics a luxury. To protect children we must nurture the world in which they live. They are living organisms within that environment.

We are living in a world that has no time for integrity. Joe Paterno dedicated a lifetime to it. Remember him for that.

Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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+131 # mountainview 2012-08-20 14:24

If Joe Paterno had any integrity at all he would have prevented Sandusky from raping children. He knew about it & kept quiet. There is no definition of integrity which includes allowing child molestation. Joe Paterno lost whatever integrity he ever had and died in disgrace as he should have.

-17 # RMDC 2012-08-21 03:07

"If Joe Paterno had any integrity at all he would have prevented Sandusky "

And would you say this about every president or corporate leader when some soldier commits crimes on a battlefield or an employee goes crazy and shoots up a workplace. Is the postmater general responsible when a mailman goes "postal."

There are of course lots of things leaders are responsible for. But not this one. You've obviously never worked in a big organization and known much about what goes on.

+9 # tomo 2012-08-23 11:32

RMDC: You present the murkiest of murky rationalization s. Keep this up, and we will lose all sense of direction. We're almost there.

-13 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-21 10:15

Rapists do not tell people they rape kids. And esp not to Joe Paterno's of the world.
Funny how Federal Investigators were investigating all sorts of stuff on Penn State Campus and this never came up.
Yet here you all are bad mouthing Joe when that red headed creep was in the shower room how many times and let those kids be raped if at all???? He is okay for walking out on those kids? He could have put Sandusky away there an then just calling the State Cops and Coalition against Rape. But no he 'supposedly' told Joe expected Joe to do what? Arrest Sandusky. Joe probably saw this snitch for what he was a position climber. If Joe saw Sandusky, there would have been no Sandusky.

Stop making up bs this is over. When you have proof Joe actually knew and saw children who were raped then I will believe otherwise all you are ...mudrakers.

Good or Bad let the Family alone. Let Joe pay for his sins if he has them where he is now. make sure you clean up the campuses with this Journalist across America I am sure there are a lot of women who would like to go to school without being harassed and raped too.

I hope those who said they were raped by Sandusky were, otherwise all they are is scum out for money along with their families.
Most of the people I know male/female that were raped we had to live with it.
We did not want the extra bs that came with Publicity or trials.

+17 # xenontab 2012-08-22 11:24

There was a witness to the crime that reported it to Joe Pa, and he decided not to go to the police with it. So when a witness comes to you, yeah that's a pretty good hint you should turn it over to the authorities

+119 # ilenewells 2012-08-20 14:56

Joe Paterno convinced officials at Penn State not to go to the authorities after the 2007 incident. Paterno was obviously worried about the effect this would have on his football program. Paterno turned a blind eye to what was going under and he knew the allegations in 1998. This was 10 years of ignoring the signs. I don't call that integrity.

+9 # mjc 2012-08-21 07:52

You so blandly state this as if it is a proven fact. From what many of us who followed this sordid scandal from day one believe is that Paterno reported what a graduate student then had witnessed in a shower, a man who wasn't ready to call it abuse AT THAT TIME, and Paterno reported it to the two men who were HIS bosses, the way the chain of command was supposed to operate. The result of that was apparently silence, from the top of the chain down. Paterno said he wished he had done more which meant that he should have challenged his bosses and the President of the University on an incident he was not a witness to; pretty shaky ground.

+8 # xenontab 2012-08-22 11:29

Actually from his grand jury testimony Joe Paterno knew that something of a sexual nature had happened in the shower between Sandusky and the victim. And please don't refer to those tow as his "bosses". Joe Pa was the one with the most power on campus, evinced by the fact that three years after this he threw the president of the university outnofnhisnhous e when they tried to fire him. He was into danger whatsoever from any backlash. There was no bosses to challenge, he was the boss

+2 # mjc 2012-08-24 11:09

They were his "bosses", supervisor ? and the chain of command led to them. The graduate student...McCaf ferty??...later a coach or coach assistant couldn't go to them and he went to Paterno. Freeh and others have made it seem as Paterno was someone who would never be challenged: baloney. And the president fired him when he wanted to distance himself from Paterno. It is great that you can create a scenario that you can believe...in spite of the facts.

-6 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-21 10:06

You know this personally? Seems strange because if he was afraid than I guess someone in the Board room with the strings was keeping them all in line.

Why no finger pointing at the slob who left the kid with Sandusky? He visually saw this rape and left the child and ran. Paterno was told about it. I am sure he hears lots of stuff and has to wonder for what purpose.

Let the man rest, he has been judged.

If you want this not to happen then I suggest getting you butt off the chair and going and cleaning up every Campus in America because there is lots of partying, drugs, rapes, hazing goin on...otherwise judge not lest thou be judged.

You weren't there... like I said there was already investigations underway that turned up Nothing... Let his Family put this all to rest.

You wonder why these people came out of closet now...wow bet they were looking for some easy money????? Most of us who are raped do not want anyone to know it, we do not want more bs. Nowadays all you people want is handouts.

Don't like Rape? How are you voting this year pro republican

+73 # universlman 2012-08-20 15:09

Nonsense.

+19 # barbaratodish 2012-08-20 15:15

Excuse me, MARC ASH, but WE ARE ALL A PART OF THIS: "No one that could or should have interceded was prepared for the range of problems that Sandusky presented. Not Paterno, not the Penn State athletic program, not the school's administrators, not the administrators of the charity Sandusky founded, Second Mile, not the organization's multitude of wealthy, powerful and influential benefactors, not the local district attorney, not even former Pennsylvania attorney general, and now Pennsylvania governor, Tom Corbett, who sat on the case in secrecy for nearly three years, and not the NCAA. No one was prepared for Jerry Sandusky." INSTEAD OF APART FROM THIS! You, MARC ASH, I, BARBARA TODISH and each and every one of us (except for maybe innocent infants, etc., ) ARE responsible in some way for all the violence, etc., because IF WE ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION THEN WE ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! I am reminded of Soren Kierkegaard who referenced THE SOCIETY (THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, PERHAPS?)to a rolling stone gathering moss. If we are all inside the stone (callous society) how can we stop the momentum? Perhaps the prime mover, what started the callous society "stone", etc., rolling and gathering "moss" in the first place is the "idea" of property, and the arrogant idea of ownership of same?

+12 # X Dane 2012-08-20 21:06

Barbara.
NO WE ARE NOT all part of it. The ones who KNEW, were certainly part of it. Their VANITY got in the way. It would have been very embarrassing, had they spoken up RIGHT AWAY.

Now it is a DISGRACE, the reputation of a university ruined, and the ones that did NOTHING, do not deserve any compassion, for they showed NONE for the poor kids, that Sandusky molested.

FOOTBALL WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CHILDREN.
ALSO TO PATERNO. THAT IS HIS GREAT SHAME.

+11 # paradoctor 2012-08-20 21:19

I beg to differ with "if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem". Such a stance is both judgemental and amoral; it is a lazy substitute for ethical analysis; for if everybody's to blame then nobody's to blame.

-1 # RMDC 2012-08-21 03:04

Sorry Barbara -- we are not all part of this. It was a crime by one person. I think Marc Ash is right about Paterno.

Does anyone remember the spate of daycare center sex abuse scandals of the late 80s and early 90s. All of those ultimately proved to be false --hyped up charges by media hungry and corrupt prosecutors. I'm sure this case has a lot of that in it too.

Louis Freeh as the independent investagor! Come on. No one would believe the master mind of the Waco massacre. The lies and cover ups he produced for the Waco tragedy destroyed this guy's credibility forever. I'm inclined to think the entire story is a lie just because Freeh is associated with it.

I doubt that what has appeared in the media has any relation to the truth.

+17 # RLF 2012-08-21 03:18

If what Babs says is true, then the sports in our colleges have clouded the ethics of our colleges to the extent that they should be eliminated completely. If a man is diddling children and and he is not kept clear of them because of a sports program...sport s need to go so that people can get their perspective back. Sports, the new opiate of the masses.

-5 # in deo veritas 2012-08-21 06:05

The only way to stop crimes against kids is to make it a capital offense. That is what Sandusky and all degenerates like him deserve. Just putting them on a sex offender list is NOT enough. As long as they are alive and among us they are a threat. If the anti-gay marriage groups would direct their vitriolic efforts against these vermin the public would be better served.

+96 # JSRaleigh 2012-08-20 15:27

I'll remember that Paterno could have stopped Sandusky and didn't.

+88 # whatsthebigidea 2012-08-20 15:30

We ALL have a responsibility to stand up and speak out when we witness injustice. Paterno and ALL the people of stature (supposed leaders) that made a choice to stay silent deserve nothing more than scorn.

+88 # Susan1989 2012-08-20 17:18

Paterno had the power to do the right thing and chose not to. It is easy to have integrity when things are going well. He chose to ignore the rape and abuse of children. How could this possibly make him worthy of being called a man of integrity? Shame on you for this attempt to whitewash a coward and narcissist.

+76 # savagem13 2012-08-20 17:23

Integrity? Who do you think you're fooling? Any integrity that Joe Paterno might have possessed was erased by his decision to turn a blind eye to Jerry Sandusky's immoral, illegal behavior. Stop making excuses for men who refuse to do the right thing!! Both Jerry Sandusky AND Joe Paterno--and everyone else who participated in keeping this quiet--deserve our scorn. Why the Hell do you think society is as diseased and dark as it is? Because too many fail to control their impulses like Jerry Sandusky. And too many more, out of fear, denial, ignorance, politeness, laziness, greed, etc., etc.--too many more keep quiet like Joe Paterno. Stop being quiet and maybe the psychopaths and sociopaths will have a harder time ruling the world!

-46 # Texas Born And Bred 2012-08-20 18:19

I think Mr. Ash presents a very valid point. A lot of finger pointing has gone on during this entire thing. As for Joe Paterno, what exactly do you to do with a case that sat in the hands of the state attorney general for 3 yrs? It was long out of his hands. You might wanna take his quote that "I should have done more". Well sure he was an 85 yr old grandfather. Any man would feel helpless in that overall situation. Bottom line, Sandusky was a predator who was found guilty by a jury of his peers. Paterno was a man, unindicted by a grand jury, who dedicated 61 yrs of his life to the integrity of a university and it's football program. It's time to stop speculation and deal with facts.

+18 # bbaldwin 2012-08-21 05:36

Texas "Born and Bred" - this could have happen at UT Austin just as it did at Penn State. Football with 5 million dollar salaried coaches are going to think about their big football empires way before they are going to watch their coaches - whatever they are doing.

-11 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-21 10:01

Funny that the investigation by feds and state never come up with any evidence against Sadusky until the Redhead wanted his position.
In this day and age of suing, these kids an parents waited to hang Paterno for the Penn State Aluminis and Board for their intentional negligence?

What a tragic end to a beloved Coach, and a shame to his family. You cannot fight Money Joe...Board wanted that Alumnis Money and Grant Money. They wanted no waves. Believe me there is plenty of dirty laundry on Campus, rapes how about the women? Fraternity and Sports hazings. Drugs and Alcohol actually gotten for students. Penn State like so many others is just a product of greed, anything goes.
Blame yourselves, if you went to college, you know what goes on. Same with all schools.

+13 # carpepax 2012-08-21 10:51

He still chose saving the football program from embarrassment and disgrace over the well-being of children being molested and raped. Everything we learned about Joe Paterno in the past year effectively erases all the respect he earned over his 61 year career at Penn State. Sure, he built a great football program but he did so while simultaneously being spinelessly complicit in Sandusky's predatory behavior.

+75 # lincolnimp 2012-08-20 19:10

I'm so delighted to read the comments. I was dreading looking at them for fear that there would be a lot of people who might subscribe to the message of this bit of misplaced hero worship. Joe Paterno was a man with a great following and could have come to the rescue of Sandusky's victims....he didn't. He chose to turn a blind eye to the suffering of innocent children. He is beneath contempt. Nothing anyone can say will change the fact that young boys were raped because Joe Paterno had no interest in stopping those rapes.

+3 # dyannne 2012-08-20 20:19

Wow! Mark Ash, founder of Truthout and founder of RSN, two great news publications that I have loyally followed for years and sometimes contributed to (not often, I'm retired on a very meager pension), and have great respect for, I am shocked that this would be your take on Joe Paterno. How can you believe that all those powerful people and institutions could be shut down by one nasty, evil, depraved, despicable man without their complicity? If just one of those people, Paterno, the governor, the attorney general, the university president, had been honestly horrified - as they should have been - and said, "This will not go on one more minute," .... but none did. And they were all complicit for selfish reasons. They all deserve blame. They aren't worthy of their positions, none of them. None had any integrity, including Joe Paterno. You're dead wrong on this one.

+113 # Robert B 2012-08-20 20:50

Let's see you make the same argument about the last several Popes.

+20 # indian weaver 2012-08-21 03:56

Amen to the indictments of the Catholic child molesters and the Pope for supporting those rapes with chosen avoidance of this issue within that church (religion?). This is a very disturbing article.

+13 # Rich Austin 2012-08-20 20:55

Here is what Ash misses - or chooses to ignore: College football is no longer a game, it is big business. And just as with big business, it knows no morality. The bottom line is always the bottom line. Despite pontifications about "high standards", Paterno surrendered to the seaminess of the big business aspects of college football. That was his undoing, his blind allegiance to Penn’s financial ledger sheet.

Old Joe should have blown the whistle on Sandusky. He chose not to do so. For shame, for shame. (One wonders if he followed the unstated curriculum of Penn’s business majors.) Lest all the blame fall on Joe, let’s be honest and acknowledge that regents were in on the scandal, but they, too, remained faithful to the big business of college football...at the expense of exploited youths.

What this nation needs to do is admit that college football is an apprenticeship program for pro football. Pro teams should be required to fork over sizeable fees to the institutions that are training their future revenue-produci ng machines.

The NCAA? It's as unethical as the NRA, but rather than trying to justify private ownership of AK-47's the NCAA deals in $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$.

+24 # TomDegan 2012-08-20 22:29

Although never a sports fan, I always took note of the career of Joe Paterno. His first cousin, Joe Gargiulo, was my uncle. He married my father's eldest sibling, Audrey Degan, in April of 1942. The physical resemblance between the two men was always striking. They might have been fraternal twins. Because of this indirect familial connection, I always felt a great amount of pride and admiration for the guy. That his once-sterling reputation could have fallen this low is almost inconceivable to me. It's like a horrible nightmare from which one awakens, grateful at the realization that it was just a dream. Only this is no dream. In fact it's too hideous and real to even contemplate.

I was hoping that, somehow, he would be exonerated. That's never gonna happen - not in this lifetime or any other for that matter. Uncle Joe passed away on October 6, 1990. Like Woody Guthrie, he would have turned 100 this year. I'm certainly glad he didn't live to see this.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan

+3 # cunegonde 2012-08-21 04:15

Someday - maybe next month, maybe next decade - prople will cool off enough to realize that Marc is much more on the mark than those who rushed to judgment. The evidence that Paterno could have stopped Sandusky is almost nonexistent. I urge people to actually review that evidence rather than simply reacting.

+2 # tomo 2012-08-22 23:14

What if Paterno said: "Hey, I've been told that Sandusky's been molesting kids in the showers"? Do you think maybe that might that have put a dent in Sandusky's program?

+11 # hwatt 2012-08-20 22:35

What it really shows is how a lifetime spent doing good things with noble intent can be reduced to ashes by failing to do the right thing when it is absolutely required.
Many of the good things Paterno did could have been left undone and it would not have been noticed, but failing to do the right thing when it needed to be done ruined him forever.
Nothing could have ever undone what his failure to act allowed to happen.

+6 # speedboy 2012-08-20 22:40

Anyone still wanting to defend Paterno and/or Penn St should view the 2009 movie documentary "Training Rules", (available thru Netflix), which exposes the shameful practices in their women's basketball program, which went on for years with support from Papa Joe, the University, and his Church.

+17 # America 2012-08-20 23:26

The prosecution and conviction of Sandusky is a triumph for the American justice system.

+8 # DrEvel1 2012-08-21 00:10

I have no doubt that Paterno, along with all the other guys and gals who enabled Sandusky to indulge his sexual tastes, really DID believe in "integrity" and in themselves as guarantors of that integrity. The problem was that they defined integrity as a property to be ensured by a really quite small elite cadre, mostly senior rich white guys who looked a lot like them - and the "threats to integrity" as posed by just about everyone else. Within this mindset, no one within the fold, like Sandusky, could seriously threaten integrity - the threats came from those outside the inner circle. Thus, any questions raised from outside was simply more reason to circle the wagons and defend the in-group. These kinds of social oligarchies are extremely hard to crack from outside; it's only when they self-destruct from within, as in this case through Sandusky's enormous hubris and over-reaching, that progress is made. It is not appropriate to say that Paterno et al. maintained integrity; what they maintained for a long time was an ILLUSION of integrity preserved by the systematic devaluation of anyone not part of their group.

+5 # rstsummers 2012-08-21 02:15

Sorry guys. If you haven't been part of the scene, you do not know what you are talking about. The police and DA cleared Sandusky in 1998. Legally, the univ. had no option except for Joe to quietly remove him from the program, which he did. Cleared of all charges means you cannot go around publicly calling the man a pedophile. This matter had absolutely nothing to do with the university from the start. I was the BOT that threw the university under the bus to protect their asses. If they had done their job none of you would ever had linked the scandal to the university and especially to Joe. As a two time alum and 40+ year fan of Joe and the Lions, the available information completely exonerates Joe and mostly exonerates the university. Certainly the football program was uninvolved and the NCAA sanctions are ridiculous. Even people who blamed Paterno for months have now gotten their hands on the real facts and changed their minds. If you get your info from ESPN, USA Today and NCAA, do your own research. The facts are readily available.

+2 # tomo 2012-08-22 23:06

So good ole Joe was held in thrall by a bad DA? That's nonsense. Nobody is held in thrall by a bad DA except a bad person.

-12 # Had911@aol.com 2012-08-21 02:28

Thomas Jefferson engaged in the buying and selling of human beings. Surely, we should tear down his statues. Or do we need the shade?

Woodrow Wilson, btw, who is applauded for guiding the country through WWI, was a virulent racist who would not allow black people to work in the federal goverment. Franklin Roosevelt was unfaithful to the lovely Eleanor. John Kennedy was a known whoremonger. LBJ got the Civil Rights Act passed and then had thousands killed in Vietnam.

Can we tear down all the statues? I personally would like to cast the first stone.

To all you liberals out there, all you judgmental liberals, what would you do?

+12 # HooverBush 2012-08-21 03:05

I knew what kind of "Integrity" Paterno had, way before any of this happened.
When asked to come to the Democratic Convention, by the Carter Campaign, Paterno said, "Coaches should stay out of Politics". Then a few years later he made a big speech at the Republican Reagan Convention. What a lying phony.
Imagine all the "Franco Harris" types who voted for Reagan, just because "Coach Paterno" said so".

+3 # brasch 2012-08-21 03:43

Critical note: The Freeh Report is not gospel. It has NOT been subjected to even the most cursory of legal analyses. It is an "investigation, " paid for ($6.5 million worth) by the trustees at PSU, which have a reason to expect what Freeh reported. EVERY police report is subject to cross-examinati on in a court of law; and THIS report wasn't even a police report--there are NO consequences for anyone who lied to the investigators. In the media's hyper-rush to judgmetn, they forgot a basic--just because the government (or in this case a private)says something, it doesn't make it so.

+9 # Yankee49 2012-08-21 03:48

Sorry, Mark. Your article defies its own logic. Paterno was in a position to stop Sandusky. So too Tom Corbett who should also be held as accountable for lack of integrity, fortitude...wha tever virtue you want to promote. Sandusky is guilty of criminal predation. His enablers, such as Paterno and Corbett among others, are co-conspirators who turned a blind eye out of their own self-interest. Paterno deserves the infamy he's gained. Corbett and others like him should be despised for their cowardice as well.

+9 # arkee 2012-08-21 04:00

While Paterno may not have been solely to blame for the delays in prosecuting the Sandusky crime, he was closest and should have reacted in good time. He is as accountable as the bishops who covered for their pedophile priests or the rabbis who cover for their colleagues.

+12 # Eliza D 2012-08-21 04:25

I can't believe what I just read! Before certain facts regarding Joe Paterno's knowledge of Sandusky's vile acts were widely reported,people who admired him rushed to his defense. But now that it is known that Paterno knew about the rapes of innocent young boys and did nothing, there is no excuse or explanation possible. Paterno was an extremely powerful man who could have put an end to these criminal inequities and chose not to. Obviously, power,security and his fame in his own little fiefdom were more important to him than the safety of these helpless boys. They will be scarred for life. A crucible tests our real mettle and gives us a chance to show what our character really is. Joe Paterno had no mettle and deserves to be remembered for that.

+9 # Urbancurmudgeon 2012-08-21 04:57

To say that Sandusky was so powerful that all these people who threw away their integrity couldn't touch him is pure BS. The guy was a college assistant coach. What kind of power does that job cary except over players and kids?.

The fact is, that with all the integrity Paterno showed over the years, in much less important circumstances, when he was finally called to the plate, when big issues were at stake, he struck out.

Nothing Paterno did in his whole exemplary career was more important that the safety of those kids and he turned his back on them. This is also true of the entire power structure of the University and of the political and judicial setup in the state. None of these guys had their heads on straight. They all should go down. If Paterno had done the right thing, worried about the kids, instead of his legacy, in the beginning, none of this would have been a problem and a lot of kids would have bee spared what they went through.

+18 # gwall 2012-08-21 05:01

as an alumnus, and as a student, I always thought that there was entirely too much emphasis placed on football at PSU.I'm aware of the economic implications, but its become a cult of celebrity, with the attendant dire consequences. Maybe this is an opportunity to realign the priorities of the school and community toward a world class university rather than a school noted for tailgates and party animals. Also,for fellow athletes who may be overly sensitized to this situation, ask yourselves how many times in your life has a coach taken you one on one, after hours, to an athletic facility, and subsequently showered with you naked? How many times? Right.....zero. ...its disgraceful and it went on far too long, sadly for all.

-7 # genierae 2012-08-21 05:29

We see the public spectacle of Penn State and the tarnishing of Mr. Paterno's image, and we are outraged that this pedophile wasn't stopped years ago. Yet child molesting is rampant in families across this country and it is almost always kept secret by family members, allowing it to continue generation after generation. When the child grows up and tells the truth, he is almost always abandoned by his family, those who are supposed to love her. It is easy to condemn others who fail to rescue children, but if it happened in your own family, would you have the courage to stand by the victim and see that justice is done? If you would do the right thing, you are one in a million.

Mr. Sandusky most likely was abused himself, do we have any compassion for him? Boys who are molested are much more likely to become abusers than girls. They are acting out what was done to them. Do we really think that the way to deal with these sick people is to put them in prison? Until we stop criminalizing this behavior, and begin to treat it as insane, we will not make any progress in eradicating it. Treating it as a crime only keeps offenders from getting the help they need, if we gave them hope they could be healed, then many would seek treatment.

0 # genierae 2012-08-22 07:47

The thumb-downs I receive on this comment come from those who are glad to condemn others, but refuse to see the truth about themselves.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye, and pay no attention to the board in your own?" Jesus

+18 # ricardo 2012-08-21 05:39

The American mind has been carefully inculcated with this grid iron brutality of 'win at all cost' mentality. No surprise to me how it can morph into sexual abusiveness as witnessed at Penn State. American football is really a training ground of sorts for warring ventures abroad. Faced with ever increasing budget restrictions High School officials will cut cut art and music programs rather than ditch this expensive sport that damages more bodies for life than the public is aware.

We have the power to stop this. Simply stop watching and "occupying" the stadiums which by the way are paid for by us - more cream at the top for the oligarchs on Wall Street.

+2 # genierae 2012-08-22 08:07

Well said, ricardo. My son-in-law is determined to make my six-year-old grandson into a football star, starting now. He refuses to face the negative aspects of such a violent sport. Sometimes it's very hard to be a grandmother.

+11 # scribe 2012-08-21 06:05

One issue that no one raises that i think is important to this discussion is that Paterno is the individual whom President GHW Bush chose to place his name in nomination for President in the 1988 Republican Convention. At this time GHW was strongly implicated in the coverup of the Iran-Contra Scandal, and he later pardoned Caspar Weinberger, who was in a position to testify regrading GHW's role in Iran Contra. Given this history is there any surprise that when a scandal threatened to engulf Paterno that he also chose a cover-up as the appropriate response. This also may explain why Paterno refused to retire. He suspected that any subsequent coach, independent of him would expose his shoddy legacy.

+15 # svaldez724 2012-08-21 06:48

I was a school teacher for 28 years. Am now retired. I was always aware of my duty to report instances of child abuse which I did on a couple of occasions. It's not such a hard thing to do. Staying quiet as Joe Paterno did does not exemplify integrity but rather cowardice. You are wrong on this one Mr. Ash.

+17 # Buddha 2012-08-21 07:04

Horsehocky. Nobody isn't blaming Sandusky for his acts. But those acts were allowed to continue and more kids to be raped because people like Paterno chose to condone it to "protect the institution" of Penn St. over concerns for the safety of these children. A person's true moral grounding is only determined when faced with such a situation...and Paterno completely failed that moral test, as did everyone else who put Penn St's image over these children's safety.

+13 # LarrySantoro 2012-08-21 07:15

Yes and yes. Paterno, finally, was not a paragon of integrity. And what about Tom "women don't have to look" Corbett? He sat on the same information for years.

+16 # NAVYVET 2012-08-21 07:41

Compared to other sports football is graceless--push ing & bashing along with boredom. Commercialized college football has been a destroyer of integrity & scholarship, a pusher of violence and tyrannical rule. Journalists began noticing college football's pernicious influence in the early 20th century. As a college undergrad in the mid-50's I disliked football--while going steady with a young man on a big southern university's football team and wearing his fraternity pin. Ed had been a high school superstar quarterback, A student, football scholarship winner. But the university had a star quarterback so he warmed the bench, hardly ever got to play but had to eat enormous red-meat meals every evening, go to every practice & game, taking time from a demanding engineering schedule. Ed wasn't attacked by a coach, just demeaned & ignored. He dropped out after his sophomore year for the Army, came back on the GI Bill as a pharmacy major, went on for a Master's degree and a small drugstore that thrived. It didn't turn his politics to the right. He & his wife are my penpals via email--and both are staunch southern liberals! He's now 77, slim as in his teens, looks great in the photos they send. He's lived longer than many of the red-meat eaters, is a lot brighter than friends who were brain damaged in scrimmages, but has never been able to shake depression after they made him feel like nobody. Ed didn't have a good life because of college football--BUT IN SPITE OF IT.

+14 # harbormon 2012-08-21 07:42

I agree with virtually all of the sentiments portrayed here, and having grown up in Chapel Hill, NC, a demographically small, sports-mad town similar to Happy Valley, with its University of North Carolina, I saw first hand how the "too big to fail" sports program and its "win at any cost" mentality quickly takes control of many things outside normal social or institutional convention. I witnessed as the ideologues from coaches to chancellors, and most importantly, the large donor Alumni without whose annual contributions the state funded institution would surely suffer, created an entirely new ethos, which quickly became institutionaliz ed with its own ethics and rules.

With both academic parents actively involved in the highly successful men's and women's sports programs, it was easy to see how one or two acts of malfeasance could be overlooked for the perception of the greater good.

Moreover, while Ash’s point may have been that there were victims and legacies other than the grossly brutalized children, Paterno is certainly not one of them. I am horrified to think about other large academic institutions with highly successful sports programs that might be covering up similar atrocities, and much like our current society, have grown inured to these acts, and at some level justify institutionaliz ed atrocity such as Penn State did as acceptable collateral damage.

+20 # pianosaurus rex 2012-08-21 07:51

For the article writer to consider;

There are maxims of Law and codes of conduct you are seemingly not in harmony with, for example:

Qui tacet consentire videtur. (He who is silent appears to consent.)
Qui parcit nocentibus, innocentibus punit. (He, who spares the guilty, punishes the innocent.)

Qui non obstat quod obstare potest facere videtur. (He, who does not prevent what he can, seems to commit the thing.)

-1 # RMDC 2012-08-22 02:35

And there's also a saying "let the innocent cast the first stone." so Louis Freeh, the incinerator of children at Waco, is the voice in this case. What do you do when those who speak the loudest are also the most guilty themselves?

Your maxims would apply more certainly to US foreign policy. I'm not defending Sandusky. He's been convicted and got what he deserves. But I am against the blaming of so many people who only failed to take preventative action.

+2 # NAVYVET 2012-08-22 04:08

As for unesteemed Guv Tom Corbett (space cadet), don't forget "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Who will keep an eye on the guardians?)

+12 # annloc 2012-08-21 08:20

Mr. Ash, how, exactly, do you define integrity? Least we forget is not now nor was he ever god. He was MERELY a good football coach.

+10 # wleming 2012-08-21 08:24

Paterno was a good football coach and an oppourtunist career university apparatichek, who looked the other way rather than intervene with Sandusky. His legacy is now shattered, and his inheritance ashes and sand. Can the white wash: the world knows better.

+12 # Diana 2012-08-21 09:00

As I read this article, I kept waiting for a change but it never came. Then I looked at the date to see if it had been written months or even a year ago, but it has a current date. Oh, my.

The rapes Jerry Sandusky committed are indeed his crimes. He is responsible for each and every one of them. But any and every rape that occurred after Paterno knew and did nothing to truly stop Sandusky, is also on Paterno (and anyone else who failed to act to protect a child). The kind of thinking that is shown in this article is the kind of thinking that kept Paterno from acting.

I remember Paterno for football a little. I will remember more that in the face of evil, he did nothing.

+14 # D12345 2012-08-21 09:41

"Sandusky was highly motivated, immensely powerful, and uniquely insulated. Sandusky's method, by design, was resilient and very difficult to penetrate."

Very perceptive...su bstitute Paterno for Sandusky and you have an insightful comment.

Sandusky was caught in the act. The administration was ready to report him. But the "highly motivated, immensely powerful and uniquely insulated" Paterno would not let them.

One question for Mr. Ash:

If Sandusky had been discovered in the shower showing the playbook to an opposing player...what would the response have been?

Paterno put his prestige above the health and wellbeing of young people much more in need than his varsity.

Integrity....I don't think so.

+11 # Kraag 2012-08-21 09:46

No way Marc. I don't know how you get to thinking Sandusky was just too tricky for everyone to get to and stop. They knew, they chose not to. Kids were sacrificed to the integrity you describe, but only the image of integrity. The integrity was a fake and the sick abuse was real.

-9 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-21 09:56

We miss ya Joe. Your Family should not have been put thru this scorn.

The Board and Alumni and their Police are the Blame. McQ or whoever is the worst of the criminals for walking away on that child. Whether Sandusky is all that is said ...funny since Federal and State Investigation over time never showed anything. Seems that perhaps he could have been a tool for someone to get a position and money? Reds????

Penn State is no longer a banner in my home. How they handled this is a sickening shame. They wanted their money, jobs skrew everyone else. Good...I hope you pay for your sins.

+12 # pmurdoch 2012-08-21 10:29

Joe Paterno had some admirable qualities. But integrity? No.

Integrity is an absolute. One either has it, or one doesn't. Forget about the timelines and prosecution of Sandusky. By continuing to allow Sandusky access to Penn St facilities, Paterno was providing support. No one with integrity would do that.

+8 # Feral Dogz 2012-08-21 10:33

Paterno was in the business of exploiting young athletes for the glory (and money) of NCAA sports. Why should he care about a few kids being molested? How many Penn State football players have suffered ruinous injuries in the name of sport and glory, while Paterno and the University raked in the millions? To guys like Paterno, other people are just so much cannon fodder.

+8 # moonrigger 2012-08-21 11:03

I wonder if Marc ever read QBVII?

Although Mr. Paterno's contributions to the Penn State's football reputation can't be overstated, it still doesn't excuse the fact that he should have spoken up when he learned of Sandusky's crimes. Even if there was no proof, he should have investigated any and all rumors and charges, and at the very least, immediately stopped any possibility of Sandusky being alone (especially in the showers) with juvenile boys. For that, his reputation and that of Penn State, will be sullied forever. Far worse, though, is the damage done to the real victims--the children!

-3 # btraven 2012-08-21 11:12

Marc.. My wife is a graduate of Penn. when Paterno just started there. Your defense of Paterno sounds like you may be. How do you know that Paterno's "integrity" may not have been the same kind of defense that was "impenetrable". After all how could someone so 'good' do so bad.? In a leading biography of JFK the author stated that Kennedy lied by using "candor". In other words by talking "sincerely" he consciously misled people. The ancient philosopher Epictetus said " No man knowingly does evil". I say good men can do bad things. In my opinion, based on Paterno's key position at Penn he was a good man who turned the other way for a wrong reasons and let a bd thing happen.

+5 # genierae 2012-08-22 08:38

btraven, I think what Epictetus meant was that we are all more or less asleep when we do wrong things, and if we were awake to the harm we are doing to ourselves, we would not do them. That's what Jesus meant when he said, "Forgive them Father, they know not what they do."

+7 # artsci 2012-08-21 11:24

Re Texas Born and Bred's comment: The notion that any FBS football program, Joe Paterno's included, has "integrity" is naive if not foolish. Paterno's was a veil of integrity, disguising all the usual disgraceful FBS practices that the Sandusky affair revealed. This was just another episode in a very long line stories of total corruption among the football "powers." Paterno was just more successful in hiding it all for a longer period of time, and the Sandusky affair revealed him as a complete hypocrite. Perhaps his age was an excuse -- maybe he was too senile to understand it all. But I doubt that.

+20 # freeportguy 2012-08-21 12:28

College head coaches love to talk about "character", "stepping to the plate when the chips are down", "doing the right thing", "fighting for one's values", etc.

Well when the chips were down, Paterno passed the buck and looked the other way to protect his programme. Talk about not walking the walk, about failing miserably at what he had preached for so many years perched on his pedestal.

Don't tell me about your beliefs, show me your actions and I'll tell you what your beliefs are.

+23 # jwb110 2012-08-21 13:03

+17 # Lasereye 2012-08-21 17:20

OBSERVATION: This seems to be an example of how money corrupts and covers up to keep the greed party rolling on. It's the same thing with what happened to our ecomomy - the powerful few - bought and paid with hush money to look the other way - while continuing to live the status quo of wealth and power. It's all about the money - it has nothing to do with what is right or creating a better world - it's about greed! If we as a country of citizens continue this insanity, the future of life on planet Earth is doomed to mass dis-assembly and enslavement by a few.

-1 # RaW 2012-08-22 06:45

Marc, you've certainly taken a bullet on this one.
I admire YOUR integrity.
The whole subject of child predation is distasteful to the extent that it apparently impels people to run from anything in its vicinity, pointing fingers like a shotgun at anyone behind them. You picked up some flak.
You've always discriminated between facts and allegation; between emotion and principle; between mob outrage and outrageous behavior. You didn't have to write this but you chose to.
I don't know all the facts here. But apparently a lot of your detractors think they do.

+8 # beesting 2012-08-22 17:44

Joe P had so much to give to the school, and he did give his all. What hurts is that he chose to "not see" what Sandusky was doing. In his position he should have waved a big red flag and brought Sandusky down years ago. But he didn't. There's a point, possibly for each of us, when we have to weigh our options based on morality and economics. The decision our own. And the responsibility for the fallout becomes our own as well.

+2 # SBader 2012-08-22 20:29

"We are living in a world that has no time for integrity. Joe Paterno dedicated a lifetime to it. Remember him for that."
The way I read it, yes, Joe dedicated a lifetime to the world that has no time for integrity. Sorry, no amount of slick talk is going to absolve him.

-6 # hcaddell 2012-08-23 14:27

I have absolutely no doubt that the jackals in the press killed this great man. I was amazed how quickly the people in charge of Penn State and the NCAA forgot all the good he did. The way he donated a large part of his salary, the percentage of his athletes who graduated,his clean recruiting program, etc.

-1 # krosen 2012-08-23 15:37

Anybody who seeks to figure out the pieces of this repulsive puzzle rather than mollify people who are battered by world, domestic and personal events and issues, such as Marc Ash attempted, is sticking their neck out. Playing mumblypeg in traffic. The dust will never settle. However, it was the Board that gave Sandusky his golden parachute, his keys to the building, and his office in it forever. Paterno was not allowed to fire him. Paterno did not speak to Sandusky the last year they were on the field together. Eventually, after the storied scandal broke, Paterno was fired for holding personal press conferences and for going outside of channels by the Board striving to control the story and keep their wagons in a tight circle. I don't think putting up corny statues of yourself is very classy, but PSU and the Board are beneath contempt, unspeakable but not unfathomable. PSU, 1962

+4 # tomo 2012-08-23 16:30

I think the best thing Marc could do at this point is apologize for a misguided article.

+1 # CSLevinson 2012-08-28 15:24

The gentleman who wrote this article about Joe Paterno is misinformed. Sandusky is, of course, to blame. Teachers, coaches, assistantant coaches nurses, doctors, helping professionals are all mandated reporters. Joe Paterno "knew" and did nothing about it. He allowed children to suffer. There's no defense for the truth.

0 # Emefe 2012-09-04 18:04

I agree that Paterno is not the one that should primarily be held responsible but I disagree with Marc's argument why. The link below offers some sanity into the discussion of Paterno's presumed guilt.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Analysis-Reveals-Freeh-Rep-by-Edward-Monks-120828-784.html

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