If you want to know why the Sandusky conviction is just the sad beginning of a long process involving his enablers at Penn State, start with this:
These people didn’t know the truth only because they didn’t want to know it. The best example of this pattern of denial is provided by how Mike McQueary’s witnessing Sandusky’s anal rape of a ten-year-old boy in a shower was, within 24 hours, transformed into “something of a sexual nature” when reported by Joe Paterno to his formal administrative superiors, and then within a few days into what university president Gordon Spanier characterized as “conduct that made someone uncomfortable.”
And finish here:
The single most chilling sentence in the legal record of the case is this: Referring to the rape of the child witnessed by McQueary, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office noted in its report last November that “there is no indication that anyone from the university ever attempted to learn the identity of the child who was sexually assaulted on their campus or made any follow-up effort to obtain more information.”
I’d like to think the author is wrong about whether we’re any better than Penn State, when push comes to shove. But, then again, I would have liked to have thought Penn State was better than Penn State.
Get The Picture 
I blame a lot of this mentality quite squarely on a culture (football’s in particular) that wants to pretend that homosexuality (not just pedophilia) doesn’t exist and that it is so hideously shameful we cannot speak what it is. It may have been this way in the past among a larger swath of society, I guess, I don’t know (I have older male relatives on different sides of the family who cannot acknowledge who some of their siblings were, on any level at all, apparently); but it was more than protecting the legacy, I think. It was also an ostrich’s-eye view of sexual diversity that made recognizing pedophilia impossible.
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Not trying to legitimize pedophilia by any stretch, BTW, if it wasn’t clear enough.
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raping children and being gay aren’t really on the same level? I guess I missed your point.
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Sad.
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Call me a cynic, but I’ve always thought that the reason this was kept quiet was because Sandusky was the DC on both of PSU’s national championship teams and JoePa didn’t want those sullied with Sandusky’s predilections. There was a reason Sandusky was forced to retire but not exposed in 1998.
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I agree that this was part of the reasoning, but I just don’t get it. If someone does something horrible, point it out, get rid of him, and move on. Covering it up only implicates you as an enabler and sullies every single good thing you may have done in your life.
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Sandusky’s chief enabler – his wife – should now stand trial.
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Man, I agree. Her defiance in this episode has been really disgusting and infuriating.
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There will be more victims of this slug to come forward. Trust me, there always is.
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That article you linked is powerful.
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It’s over now, except for all the victims, including his family. We can help teach all youngsters, through their taught parents, that pedophiles appear normal in society. Teach children to recognize that gifts,other than from known friends and family, are used as lures, just like in fishing. Inordinate attention from a not-well-known adult should be suspect unless you know why it is given. Accept gifts only in the presence of parents. Even then, famous entertainers and others who are pedophiles aren’t spotted by parents. Children shouldn’t go through life ignorant nor afraid. All of it is our problem. No one can be an island in the face of evil.
It doesn’t just stop there. That good-looking gal who just bought you a beer wants something and you aren’t the only one in the bar that has it, just the most stupid one. It’s funny how we atribute aberrant behavior to a person because of their gender preference. Most gays condemn pedophilia and a tranny friend of mine uses pot as a lure to find others of like mind. The twist in the sentence is purposeful to imply that,while some use mimicking patterns of behavior, they all abhor a pedophile. Some pedophiles are priests, while others may mimic a priest as their lure.
I don’t mean to say you shouldn’t accept a beer, when offered, by a Techie. Order two since he probably will leave before you are through thanking him and asking if they have found a way to win yet. Tell him the first one you accept as plunder, but the second is to salute their QBs, without whom our victories could not be possible; especially when they can’t count downs, like Ball.
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Where do you find these Techies? I have some Techies in my own family. Yeah, yeah, I know, listen I can pick my friends and I can pick my nose but I can’t pick my relatives. Anyway, you’ll die of thirst waiting for one of them to buy you a beer. It’s been a while since anything young and soft and sweet smelling has bought me a beer also. What bar did you say you hung out in?
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My nephew graduated from Techand I pick my nose too, except I try to do it only in front of a Techie having dinner. My point was that lures come in different disguises, even for adults. I appreciate your getting the attempt at humor to soften the subject.
Had a young, soft and sweet-smelling gal to buy me a beer last week. She was tending bar and was showing appreciation for my large tip. It was also her way of telling me that another beer was all it would buy. So much for my lure.
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I think the author sells many short thinking everyone would sweep this under the rug for “the greater good”. While the country as a whole has lost its moral compass, there are millions of highly principled humans still left, although they may now be the minority. Nuke the bastard.
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Nobody spoke up. Nobody stood in front of a microphone and said, “There’s some horrible stuff going on here.”
When they did, the dam burst.
It ain’t over yet. PSU has a $1.8B trust that should be *at least* a significant digit lower by the end of the year.
I hope everyone of those folks lawyer up and take as much of PSU’s money as possible.
I hope Paterno’s name is erased from everything to do w/ PSU.
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Isn’t JoePa the all-time leader in wins for major college football? I think we, and the entire NCAA, are all stuck with his name. I gotta say I never liked the guy and always thought there was something shady about him.
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Are there cases against others pending? It kind of seems to me the whole idea behind getting Sandusky to trial quickly and behind bars is to pin the whole thing on him, say we got the bad guy in jail and move on. I hope that doesn’t happen. But given the level of denial involved, it’s hard not to believe that a whole lot of people have a whole lot invested in just such a scenario. And the same sort of reasoning that protected Sandusky for so long may very well benefit others involved as well.
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Jdjrip : Do you still maintain the position of “you don’t know what you would do so don’t judge?”. Dbag
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I’m actually one of those who thinks the morality in this country is just fine. When I turn off my TV, I can honestly say that in my extended circles of relationships in business, church, and friendships that I see wonderful people at work doing wonderful things – volunteering, being active in the community, supporting schools.
It’s when I turn on the TV that I see Sandusky and Zimmerman dominating the headlines and morons insisting that our president is some sort of wannabe Hitler. Most of the people in this country are incredibly giving and incredibly caring, from both sides of the political spectrum. Somehow, we’re no longer recognizing that anymore, I’m afraid.
I am not blaming the media. But the tube (and the Internet) can be a very warped reality.
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