Football Flabbergastment
I'm almost done playing catch-up for the post-blizzard week I spent twiddling my thumbs in lieu of doing actual paid work that requires electricity (soon as those old-fashioned foot-pedal-powered computers come on the market, I'm buying one); however, I'm wondering if maybe smoke inhalation from the hundreds of candles I used as my primary heat source that week hasn't made me a little loopy, because I keep reading this news story about the Penn State child-rape scandal and it persists in making no sense to me:
Penn State trustees fire Paterno, students riotWhen I disagree with someone on a certain matter (as I do the majority of the time, being an individual-rights proponent living in an evermore police-state country), I always try to at least understand why my detractors feel as they do, and usually I think I succeed -- I don't support the evisceration of the second amendment, but I understand why many of my fellow Americans do. I don't support anything the TSA has ever done, but understand why a self-centered coward would feel differently. I even -- kind of -- understand how I, born and raised in a different time and place, might have believed "all women, myself included, should stay home and raise kids all day," "God exists and slavery is His will" or even "of all available candidates, that Hitler guy looks like the best option."
Thousands protest dismissal of longtime coach embroiled in child sex-abuse scandal
The winningest coach in major college football history was fired Wednesday night, sending angry students into the streets where they shouted support for Paterno and tipped over a news van. ... As word of the firings spread, thousands of students flocked to the administration building, shouting, "We want Joe back!" and "One more game!"
But I cannot understand how a modern American college student -- or any American born and raised after the mid-1960s or so -- could look at a rich and influential man who was complicit in covering up the rapes of dozens of children, and think HE is the victim for losing his job after his complicity was exposed. Can't wrap my mind around that at all. My best guess is that it goes something like this:
I of course do not approve of raping children or the coverup of same, no no no, but still think it's a goddamned shame the school has to lose all that sweet football money and important athletic prestige just because some tattletale couldn't keep his damned mouth shut. Not that I'm saying the rape of children is a good thing, mind you, unless a TSA agent does it for national security reasons which obviously was NOT a mitigating factor here, but there is a LOT of money at stake here, y'know, and alumni football fans to keep happy, and idealistic-purity arguments about not corrupting education or the law with the protection of athletic programs tend to be dreadfully ignorant of how the real world works, y'know?
posted by Jennifer Abel at 8:53 AM
12 Comments:
If someone passed on a rumor/claim/accusation to me the most I would do is tell my boss. Paterno did this. I see no evidence he covered up anything. The firing was simply to cover the college's ass not because he did anything wrong.
I find myself gleefully grinning at the fact that in one fell swoop, sports fans have outstripped catholic apologists for the sheer intensity of their defense of a sexual predator and his enablers.
The magnitude of their inexcusable hubris is heightened by the fact that their demands for exemption from the standards of common decency (let alone law) comes from the "virtue" of a fucking game. At least Catholics have the stones to claim spiritual superiority when defending moral leaders violating children.
Also, the silence of Westboro Baptist in all this should be noted and recalled the next time they open their mouths about anything.
I'm surprised Jerry Sandusky hasn't demanded the press interview all the thousands of young boys who haven't accused him of molesting them.
For that matter, Herman Cain should pick Sandusky as his running mate. Between the two of them, they should have the women's and young boys' votes locked up.
Hopefully Jeff P. you do understand that Paterno was NOT a sexual predator and did NOT witness anything and he DID pass on the rumor/gossip to his boss and was assured that an investigation would take place. Hopefully you also know that a police investigation determined there was not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Hopefully you don't simply paint everyone as being a homosexual predator simply because you don't like them.
Someone should ask all the protesters in support of Paterno if they'd be willing to offer up their little brothers to be raped by Sandusky in exchange for the next football season.
I'm afraid of what the answer would be. Anyone see Jon Stewart's take on it? Search for "Jon Stewart" "Penn State." Definitely worth the effort.
But then look at the idjuts out there who ask "Would you rather not be groped, or get blown up?"
To put it bluntly, anyone who would stand up for these scumbags needs to be taken out & shot. I'm looking at you, Anonymous. You think that it's okay, since Paterno told his boss? He's free & clear then, huh?
Let me postulate a scenario. Let's imagine your little brother got raped by his coach, and you found out about it. What do you do? You can go to the coaches boss and report it, which is an obvious first step. Then what? Is it all okay now? What if nothing ever happens, and the coach goes on for years, continuing to rape young boys? But you're in the clear, since you told on him, right?
Bullshit. If the boss doesn't take action, you take it to the police yourself. If the police don't take action, you take it to the media. If the public outcry doesn't spark some action, you go and cap the fucker yourself. Got it now?
I can only hope that Artor does indeed allow himself to step outside the law and "cap the fucker" himself. But why stop with sexual criminals? Why not cap anyone who breaks the law. I am in favor of "capping" anyone selling drugs to kids. How about "capping" anyone who while high kills or seriously injurs someone? Lets "cap" illegal aliens who cost our federal government about $400 billion a year and costs our states an even great amount paid for by you and me. But why stop there. lets "cap" anyone who knows of an illegal alien but doesn't turn them in. And then "If the boss doesn't take action, you take it to the police yourself. If the police don't take action, you take it to the media. If the public outcry doesn't spark some action, you go and cap the fucker yourself. Got it now?"
Of course. And I'm sure that anyone who hears of yet another series of people being capped, despite lacking any knowledge of the particulars of the case, will rest easy in the assurance that it must have been justified given Artor's judicious temperament.
One question troubles me, though. People are getting capped all the time, and the people doing all the capping -- justified or not -- no doubt considered themselves justified in doing so. So, not knowing the particulars of the case, should we just assume that anyone who was capped must have deserved it? Or should we have -- oh, I don't know -- some sort of public forum in which the capping must first be justified to third parties? Oh, pshaw!
And again, why stop there? If we trust anyone to just up and cap someone they know is guilty, why not let the cops do it, too, without any of that cumbersome nonsense about search warrants and jury trials?
Thank you Anonymous for setting me straight! It hadn't occurred to me that raping children is JUST LIKE being an illegal immigrant or smoking pot.
And Kevin, I'm not advocating vigilante gangs killing whomever they feel needs it, but when there is an obvious miscarriage of justice, and you see your own kid getting raped while nobody with the authority & responsibility is doing anything to stop it, what would you do? The public forum where things like this are supposed to be decided would be great. I heartily advocate that something like that be tried. No doubt it would be quickly taken over by lawyers though.
Artor I have decided to bow to your greater intellect.
I now agree when a crime is committed everyone who knows the criminal or ever saw the criminal should be burned at the stake and the media should harp on the innocent "friends" of the criminal until their reputation is destroyed, their employer fires them and they must be placed in protective custody because nutcases are trying to kill them. What the hell it has been a long time since whe had the joy and splendor the Salem Witch trials and burnings gave us. You are indeed a font of common sense and justice. Please carry on flaming innocent people and the media, who we all agree is flawless, will support you.
Dude, you still aren't getting it. As members of a civil society, it's our duty to see that wrongs are righted. If you know somebody's raping children, you have to make it stop. Telling the authorities is the first step, and in a just world, that should be sufficient, but sometimes it isn't.
If you see the authorities turning a blind eye to a grievous wrong, you can't just let it go, thinking you've done your moral duty. If you know the crime is still being committed, you MUST step up and take it to the next level.
Ideally, it would never come to that. Hopefully SOMEONE with authority will actually do their f$%^ing job and see that justice is served.
But if my kid was being raped, and I saw all the responsible authorities whistling and looking away, hell yes, I'd be out for blood.
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