Mest30 said:
Ok, let's assume JoePa was not trying to cover anything up and he acted in good faith when reporting the incident to his superiors. That does not negate the fact that JoePa knee that the 'investigation' amounted to nothing and he took no other course of action after realizing nothing happened.
I'm not gonna assume anything (although I have yet to see any evidence of Paterno intentionally covering up for Sandunsky), but yeah I agree Paterno should have gone to the police - as should have a lot of other people. I fault him for not going - but I still believe most of the anger should be directed at other people - witnesses that didn't say anything, family members that didn't report suspicious activity, etc...
Look, this isn't your typical college sports booster scandal. Kids were raped and scarred for life. Id bet my dick that if the victim was one of JoePa's kids he would have taken a much different approach, and whatever approach that would have been should have been the same thing he should have done in this case. I can only assume that most of the people defending JoePa don't have kids of there own. Having kids changed your outlook on everything. Your life revolves around them now, not you. I would fucking kill somebody if they raped my son, Damn the consequences. It's hard just typing that. To think that this mother fucked didnt do all he could to protect the innocence of a child is disgusting.
If all of a sudden the basis for judgment of someone is whether they did all they could "to protect the innocence of a child" then pretty much all of humanity is guilty... who actually spends every waking hour and moment attempting to right every wrong (when children are involved) they have reason to believe is happening... hey what about the innocence of children in sweatshops providing all our clothes, the innocence of children in Mexico that fall victim because of the drugs we buy, etc... Paterno should have done more - I agee - including possibly confronting Sandusky himself, finding out who the kid was, going to the mother, then going to the police... I find it hard to believe though that everyone throwing rocks now would hold themselves to the same standard they are holding Paterno to...
Yeah the situation is disgusting - and i find many aspects of humanity (like not being vigilante about protecting children and innocents) disgusting - but damn if Paterno is the first person ever to not go out of his way 24-7 to protect the innocence of children. He could have done more, he could have done less - heck he could have actually done what many people are accusing him of - trying to cover up.
it is sooooo easy to just sit there to rage out and throw rocks (not referring to you directly but just in general to everyone up in arms about this)... there is child prostitution out in the open in many third world countries - is everyone that is outraged that Paterno didn't do all he could to protect the innocence of children gonna pack bags to Asia and Africa and go out and do everything they can to go protect the innocence of a child somewhere?
Look - I agree this is absolutely horrible what happened - and yeah Joe Pa should've confront Sandusky and any number of people involved should have gone to the police or even the media to try to raise hay - but I wonder just how many people acting out fantasy scenarios in their minds of either beating up Sandunsky (if they were the graduate assistant) or getting personally involved in a quest of justice (if they were Paterno) would actually have acted consistent with what they said the graduate assistant and/or Paterno had done.
Personally, I'd have been pretty spooked and scared at catching Sandunsky in the act. Probably horrified and traumatized in my own way, I would like to think that the first thing I do is go to the nearest phone and/or grab the nearest person in the area so that Sandunsky and the kid don't actually leave the building or area and the police are made aware of what I saw a soon as possible. That is what I think the graduate assistant should have done, and if I were Paterno I would have gotten the police involved immediately and only gone to higher ups to inform them of that.
BUT - I wasn't there and I don't know for sure that is what I would have done.
He just didn't give a fuck. That's what is disturbing. It's not that, 'oh, he did the minimum required by law, he's good'. It's that he didn't do enough to make sure justice was served and to protect kids in the future. How many kids were raped after the 2002 incident? Every one that was is a direct result of JoePa and many other peoples lack of doing shit.
I agree Joe Pa not doing to the police is aggravating, but Joe Pa isn't the police and it wasn't his job to go investigate and "make sure justice was served." In a sane world, the graduate assistant would have gone to the police and everyone else would have only been peripherally involved. Also, I highly doubt Paterno didn't care. I think he could have cared a whole lot more.
How would you sleep at night if you did the bare minimum and as a result, other kids were raped?
Hey i know as a society we are doing the bare minumim and not only are kids being raped, but kids are starving, forced into warfare, and a lot of other horrible things all over... and looking at the 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys statistics i'm sure here in the US people in general aren't vigilant about stopping child abuse. It sucks but I'm not gonna rage out on everyone else and demand heads rolls on people who reported what they heard and didn't, as far as we know, do anything to impede investigations or cover anything up. Everyone could always do more - there are real villains here - Sandunsky, the people that tried to cover things up, maybe the wife - my personal judgment is that Paterno is not a villain.
I imagine you would be scarred for life to. And if that's the case, how can you or anyone else defend this fuck?
As far as we know, Paterno didn't rape anyone, didn't see anyone rape anyone, and from what he says now feels that him and others were "fooled" as to who Sandunsky was. He reported what another witness said as soon as he heard about Sandusky in the shower. I wasn't there, I don't know what went through his mind, and I don't know what he thought did or didn't happen as a result. I do know there is plenty of blame to go around and it doesn't start with Paterno.
I'm not necessarily defending his minimal actions at this point, but I'm also not ready to blindly condemn him without knowing more.
Knowing that his lack of action directly resulted in the rape of a child? I'll say it once more because it should drainage with any decent human being. What would you think of JoePa if it was your 8 year old boy getting a dick stuck up his ass? Imagine your sons fear. His tears. His pain. Him crying for it to be over. Would you still think Joe did enough? Fucking disgusting.
If it was my kid I would be more emotionally involved - no doubt. That is how I often see parents behave here in the US - and it is also how I view the US and many societies to act as populations. Our kids are more important than other kids, and American kids are more important than other kids around the world - but it doesn't need to be my kid to know that Paterno (along with a host of other people) should have done more. But - Paterno is a long way down on the list of people that I would place blame on. It was my kid - I'd be much more pissed at the graduate assistant and Sandusky's wife for enabling this behavior.
And that awful rape experience of a child you describe - that happens every day in the US and around the world and there are ways people can get involved to directly impact the situation - but as is the case whenever a story like this pops up (whether it is the Boys Scouts, Catholic Church, or in this case the Second-Chance predator) - I suspect most people feeling super outraged about the fact that people let this happen aren't gonna do much afterwards.
Hey sorry for the rant-like post this is really emotional and like you said - disgusting, but I just can't work myself up over this when to be honest - I'm not surprised. If the Church and Boy Scouts have been farming grounds for child abuse - then so could a charity affiliated with a major educational institution. It sucks, I hate it, and I hwould like to think that if I was in any way close to what happened I would have acted sooner and with more haste than anyone (including Joe Pa) did, but I also hope that long term I work towards being less of an "enabler" for child suffering of any kind in the context of the world at large.
