Joe Paterno (Page 2 of 2)

Well said Jane. And to dknight, your post made my heart skip a beat, that is just dreadfully horrible beyond words.  As a fellow JB forum member, I am so sorry for the pain and sorrow you have suffered.  As a parent of 3, its hard to comprehend an entrusted teacher or adult hurting anyone's child. Sending good vibes your way and you are extremely brave & courageous to have the strength to rise above & carry on.

This is a very sensitive subject no doubt.  My brother too was molested by a Catholic priest as a boy and it destroyed his life.  He's still battling his demons and I stopped going to church long ago (which pisses me off cause I liked the religion).  I place pedophiles at the absolute bottom rung of criminal offenders and that creature that worked for Joe Paterno will get his comeuppance.  I'm of the camp that Joe made an awful decision - he didn't do the right thing to stop his predator assistant and he was justly terminated.  That said, he did do enormous good producing a long list of exemplary athletes, was the winningist coach in his sport and Penn State was/is the gold standard of how to run clean great program.  My God....I'm sure Joe wished he could get a do over and handle things differently, but in my mind the good he did far outweighs this.  I forgive him and God bless his soul.  Rest in peace Joe Pa - I'm gonna miss ya next fall and all the falls I got left!

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DK, yes, I can understand how your past experience impacted your outlook on the subject, and I take back my statement about you not being empathetic or sympathetic. All I'm saying is that Paterno's actions were neither indifferent nor insensitive, and he does not deserve the tainted legacy that has been unfairly forced on him.

Those of us in PA have heard more of this story than the sound bytes on the national news. Paterno did not attempt to cover anything up; if he had, he would have told McQueary to remain silent and would have remained silent himself.

Paterno's only mistake was expecting those who were responsible for dealing with this crime to actually deal with it. It was the Penn State Administration and Campus Police who are at fault here. And that same Penn State Administration that tried to cover it up then fired Paterno, both to shut him up and to try to cast a shadow of guilt on him to cover their own inaction. Your posts, as well as comments I've seen elsewhere in the media, show that they were successful, and it's that disinformation that I've tried to undo here.

This will be my last post on this subject, because I see no point in drawing this out any more. I just wanted to set the record straight. I sympathize with your experience, as with all victims of this violent, dispicable act, and I'd stand shoulder to shoulder with you to mete out whatever justice you'd care to deliver to Jerry Sandusky, or the people who TRULY tried to protect him, but I also sympathize with how Joe Paterno's name, and all the good works he did over a half century, was tarnished by events over which he had no control.

Because there's no disagreement on that. Everyone agrees he's scum.
There are differing opinions on Paterno, therefore debate.