If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight told a crowd of several thousand at the Bryce Jordan Center in late January that Joe Paterno suffered for his actions. No, sir, it was for his inactions.
Many have thrown harsh criticism at Paterno for not acting right away. While a heroic, Superman response would've been ideal, it's just that -- a fantasy.
Child abuse being so heinous a crime, and so legitimate a cue for outrage, Paterno's story showed the impact of the interactivity that media outlets value so highly in today's Neo-Tabloid Age.
Such is the duality of Paterno's legacy. Media and fans paint pictures in broad strokes of black and white, but Paterno's picture is colored in inscrutable shades of grey.
On ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer, reporter Dan Harris called Paterno "the mythic embodiment of success with honor." What honor?
The conversation that serves to best commemorate the horrible turn of events at Penn State should be, "How are the alleged victims of Sandusky and the Penn State football culture handling this?"
Amid the outpouring of emotion that's followed has been this message that Paterno was not a god and just a human being who made some mistakes. The tributes have largely focused on the good that Paterno did in his life.
There is a greater lesson to be learned by this man's life and from any hero who falls. The lesson is this: You cannot delegate influence. You cannot defer your story to another. It is yours and yours alone.
After the Penn State scandal broke, I was asked if this was finally the tipping point. Would colleges now take sexual assault seriously? Doubtful. And a new case of a university run amok has emerged to serve as evidence.
Sandusky's arrest last November triggered a wave of news coverage. But what is the media coverage saying, and how might it affect the public conversation as Sandusky's trial moves forward?
My shame is ancient, intractable. Shame that I allowed it to happen, that I gave in to the wild, confusing pleasure of sex with him. I remained terrified, frozen in the bond of it, until I wrote a book that added an honest voice to the complexity of childhood sexual abuse.
Permit me one New Year's prediction about which I am absolutely certain, and two for which I have a strong hunch.
It has now been two months since scandal rolled into the Happy Valley. Much is still uncertain and yet the university, the surrounding community, and the nation as a whole remains fixated on the question of responsibility.
The number one issue is not sexual abuse, as important as that issue is. The greatest missed opportunity, the elephant in the room, is the need to question the purpose of the university and university athletics.
Most of us know the difference between right and wrong, and in this situation it's a no-brainer. There is no grey area here.
Jerry Sandusky's attorney, has made one misstep after another. However, his strategy of waiving Tuesday's public hearing was a good move because it gives Sandusky more bargaining chips if he hopes to spend anything short of the rest of his life behind bars.
