You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
Penn State.
It’s absurd. It’s a debacle. It’s disgusting. It’s unbelievable.
Sexual allegations from a decade ago.
It all centers on a football coach allegedly raping a child in a campus shower.
Adults reportedly see it and tell other adults who apparently sit on their hands.
More children are allegedly abused by the same coach and the cover up grows thick and disgusting like dirty motor oil.
A decade goes by and children grow up and someone finally steps forward and tells the authorities what happened.
BAM
Like a neutron bomb, Happy Valley becomes very sad. The curtains are peeled back and what is left is a closet full of skeletons and lies disbelief.
Like a tidal wave of reaction, making up for a decade of insouciance, the universtity president is fired in ignominy. Joe Paterno is yanked like a McDonalds burger flipper. A university boils over like so much pasta on an unchecked flame.
Live trucks are over turned, protesters break windows. Riot gear wearing police begin arresting incensed students with pepper spray.
The story is terrible on every level. It is magnified because of Joe Paterno, the beloved, grandfather like head coach who has been the heart and soul of the Nittany Lions for 46 years.
How long has he been there? He started as a coach in November 1949 when Jackie Robinson and Ted Williams were named MVP of their respective leagues.
It’s crazy what is going on. It’s sad and infuriating.
What did Joe Pa know and when did he know it. People say he was told and he reported it to his superiors. Those authorities reportedly did nothing to stop it. Police were never called. The adults turned their backs on the children.
Should Paterno take the fall?
Penn State decided it had to cut the cord.
Fast forward to Saturday. It’s a mess, and now they are playing a football game. There are bomb threats and police dogs and teped tailgating amidst fear of danger and disgust.
Happy Valley is not so happy.
It’s senior day and it might be one of the worst senior days ever.
I don’t care about Penn State or their football program. I hate that Joe Paterno’s name could be tarnished forever.
If guilty, I want the suspect to be identified to the prison population. If he likes touchy feely, then this setting will be perfect for him.
Mostly, I want the victims, now adults, to finally heal, to get some closure. Maybe their stories going public, will act like a cathartic mechanism to heal their wounds and to educate others to the sickness of child abuse.
And that is crazy.