If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
For the BSA to refuse to take a stand against anti-gay bullying of scouts and instead insinuate that banning gay people from serving as leaders will protect boys from being molested is ridiculous. To equate gay people with child molesters is scientifically and culturally inaccurate.
How the American justice system copes with cases like this should be of interest to all Americans. But those who are interested should not have to go on a scavenger hunt among the box scores to find it.
When I think of Penn State, I think of how the students' pride in their institution, in their leaders, could have increased enormously had the administration done the right thing. And I wonder how much they could have learned had the university only acted responsibly.
From a distance this case seems like a slam-dunk for the prosecution. There are ten different alleged victims. There's an independent witness, football assistant Mike McQueary.
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.
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