Do The Right Thing

Oh, what a week. I say I'm glad to have it over, but then again, I'm not Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Joe Paterno, Brett Ratner, Eddie Murphy, or any of the other people who've had a publicly bad week. I only want to talk about one of these major scandals, as it's the one that will likely be going on for quite some time. And folks, I'll be honest: this is not an issue where I will budge easily. When I was younger and would fight for my point on the most minor thing, whether it was why I liked Movie A and someone else didn't or something equally trivial, my parents would sit me down and remind me that the world is not black and white, right and wrong, whatever. There is gray in everyone, in all of the world. And while that's true, I just can't budge on the Penn State ordeal.

I have been consistently impressed and amazed this week at how immensely stupid people can be in this world. NPR has been covering the story in a mostly evenhanded fashion, but something in each of their stories over the past few days has set me off. This is one of those major media circuses that is both horrifying and compelling to behold. If ever there was an example of rubbernecking at a train wreck, that's what this is. Today, for example, a reporter told Steve Inskeep that people at Penn State are now concerned about what this disgusting story will do for their reputation.

Let's pause for a second. You may not know much about the story I'm referring to. So, context: last Saturday, a grand jury report came out that a former assistant coach for Penn State's college football team, the Nittany Lions, had, over a period of 15 years, been molesting young boys on campus grounds. Since at least 2002, the team's coach, Joe Paterno, as well as a few other coaches and high-level administration officials including the college president, were aware of the allegations. None of them ever went to the police. The former coach, while not being an employee of the college since 1998, was able to access the campus because he still had an office thanks to his cushy friendship with Paterno. Since the grand jury report was revealed, the assistant coach was arrested, Paterno was fired as was the president of the college, and others are being charged with perjury. The level of cowardice in this story is breathtaking. The level of deification, while somewhat expected, is staggering.

So, back to the present. People at Penn State University are concerned what this scandal is going to do to the institution's reputation. I have bad news, Nittany Lions: your reputation is in the toilet and will continue to be if the public perception you give off is that YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR REPUTATION. One of the greatly troubling aspects about this story is that those from the university shouting loudest are not shouting about the tragedy that a number of young boys, some now in college and some older, have gone through because people stood by and did nothing. The incident in 2002 where Paterno and the others were alerted to the assistant coach's proclivities occurred when a former PSU quarterback-turned-coach literally saw the coach raping an 11-year old boy in the locker room showers. His first move was to ask his dad what to do. He could've stopped the elderly coach, but he did nothing. He could've gone to the cops, but he did nothing. He went to Paterno. Paterno did nothing. The administrators and president did nothing. So, Penn State? You have no reputation anymore. You are an embarrassment to the idea of higher education in America. You are an embarrassment to what it means to be decent and moral.

Of course, what I was shouting at my radio this morning was more along the lines of "Fuck your reputation, you selfish sons of bitches. Fuck your reputation, and fuck you." I would normally apologize for my profanity, but you know what? I don't care. This is one of those rare moments when I get enraged at something that's legitimately worth getting enraged about. I got enraged when I heard the reaction from PSU students and fans when Paterno was fired on Wednesday night. (By the way, consider this: it took the PSU Board of Trustees FIVE DAYS to take any action of any kind. Boys, you made the right decision, but it took you far, far too long to do so.) Earlier that day, Paterno had made the decision to retire at the end of the season, just so he could leave the way he wanted to when he wanted to. For some people, this was appropriate; let the guy finish out the season, right? I mean, sure, he sat by as one of his former employees used his privileges at a nationally respected university to have illicit sex with boys, but he's JoePa! (The stupidest Goddamn nickname I've heard in a long time, that is.)

So, what did the PSU students do--fairly put, not ALL of them--when they heard of the firing? They rioted. They rioted because they were angry that Joe Paterno was fired.

I'll write that again: students rioted in favor of a man who let criminal actions go by under his watch. People were protesting against going to the police. They were protesting against doing the right thing. They protested against morality. They protested against decency. I'm being dramatic, you think. I'm being hyperbolic, you say. But think about what that action was. Why are these people protesting? The easy answer, the simple one, is that the coach of the football team got fired and people did not agree with the circumstances of that firing. But what WERE the circumstances of that firing? Well, he got fired because he didn't do enough. He didn't do enough to prevent child abuse from occurring on campus. He didn't do the right thing, the moral thing, the decent thing. So, tell me again: how is that being dramatic? How is this hyperbolic? This is just the fact of the matter.

Now, there are some people floating in the ether who think that Paterno did his duty, by telling administrators. Wrong. Crime happened, and you don't sit on it. You don't let the man who's accused of pedophilia work at the college. You don't let him continue to run his charity for helping out troubled young boys. You don't let him anywhere near children. You call the cops. The so-called legal thing to do is not to tell an administrator. You go to the cops so you can sleep at night, so you can look at yourself in the mirror tomorrow. Now, of course, we're getting to the crux of the problem: a lack of empathy for the victims.

As I mentioned, a lot of people at PSU are assuming that they are the victims. How will they manage in the aftermath of this incident? How will the rest of the football season be? How can they handle the national media being all bothersome? These are not questions you ask a week after finding out the tragedies that occurred on the campus. You ask about the victims. You ask about their health. You ask about their well-being. You don't focus on yourself. You think about yourself last. No, strike that: you think about Joe Paterno last, yourself second to last. So when Alec Baldwin asked on Twitter yesterday if it wasn't tragic that Joe Paterno's legacy was forever tarnished because of this scandal, I went out of my way to say that, no, really, it's not tragic. A man's record as a coach of a sport being ruined because he didn't do the right thing is not tragic. What's tragic is that, by not doing the right thing, he let the wrong thing happen. Paterno let the assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, molest children because he didn't want to ruin his precious football program.

So, to anyone concerned about Penn State University's reputation after this scandal, fuck you. For anyone who feels bad for Joe Paterno, a man who had a job well past his expiration date, a man who let absolutely atrocious acts happen on his campus, fuck you. And if you think you have a right to riot because a man is fired justly, if you think that the anarchy you display is the right message to send to the rest of the country, to the rest of the world, fuck you. And, to those people, I wish--oh, how I wish this--I could be in the room when it happens. The rest of you--the sane ones--know what "it" is. "It" is the moment of epiphany. The moment of realization. Sometime soon, probably not for a year or so (though hopefully, some of you will realize earlier), the students who rioted on Wednesday night will be struck with the realization that part of what they've given to the world is a rash act of stupidity. College is partly about being stupid. You're meant to learn, to be educated, but you're also meant to get those last bouts of immaturity out. So you get drunk before you're allowed to. You fool around, because you can. Rioting is not immature. It's chaotic and childlike. It's throwing a large-scale temper tantrum. And guess what, kids? In a year, you are going to be embarrassed. Eternally embarrassed. And I wish to God I could see what that looks like.

There is, of course, no light way to end this post, but I've gotten out a lot of bitterness, because that's all I feel right now about this reaction from people who don't appear to be mental patients. Anyway, this is just one of those "I have to write this or else I'll keep shouting in my car" kind of posts, so thanks for indulging. Have a good, safe, and moral weekend.