Of all the cautionary tales that will be written about the Penn State cover-up and Jerry Sandusky’s wretching abuse of young boys, an ESPN sportswriter tells the painful truth:

“The most important element of this tragedy, the element that demands the most attention and yet is at risk of disappearing fastest from the national conscience, is the enduring question of why. Why Jerry Sandusky was allowed to prey on children for so long when his trial revealed an intense level of suspicion of him over several years by people in sufficient position to stop him. Why so many supposedly concerned, educated and well-meaning people allowed such a

Two Sides To A Coach

person to exist in their community.

While Sandusky must stand alone, responsible for his individual choices and pathologies, the answer to why he was allowed access to kids, why no one stood up to stop him, why so many people felt it necessary to make phone calls to everyone — to their fathers, to the coaches, to administrators, to each other — but not to the police, is simple: Joe Paterno and Penn State football. There is no other reason.

Too Big....To Fail?

Acting against Sandusky would have negatively affected the program, and a negative effect on the program would have produced a negative effect on Paterno, the untouchable, the legend. Coming forward against Sandusky, challenging the big institution in the small town, presented the risk of being the outcast, the whistle-blower. No community likes to challenge its false notions of itself or to acknowledge that, yes, something so horrible occurred in its backyard despite its residents’ idealized vision of themselves.

Denial is a happy, crowded place. Sandusky, who claimed to be a family man, who put his wife on the stand to vouch for him, who based his defense on being a solid member of the community and trying to help young men, will go to prison as a sexual predator and manipulator of children. But it is Paterno who will always be the key to understanding why this dragged on. Those who failed to stop Sandusky might have thought they were protecting Paterno and his monument, but their inaction was not in his best interest (and might not even have been what the old man wanted).

Ignorant To It All Or Just IGNORING?

The question of why will stay with Penn State long after Sandusky is gone to prison, long after the Paterno apologists dwindle in number. And the answer to the question of why — Sandusky was allowed to exist because no one dared challenge the power of Penn State or Paterno, no one wanted to threaten the legacy of the football powerhouse and the great man himself — will resonate throughout every powerful institution in the country.

What sure looks like a conspiracy took place at Penn State for at least the past 15 years, and it will repeat itself. It is occurring in different ways at institutions across the country right now. It is the conspiracy of power, and now it is up to us to decide whether once and for all to crush the runaway culture of the coach, the outsized elevation of mortal institutions, and to demand accountability and responsibility. If these institutions are so important, so worthy and vital, they do not need to be protected by their followers from themselves or from the truth. Penn State and Joe Paterno should have been protecting their community, not the other way around.

Read more:

http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/story?storyId=8087426&wjb

   Follow @TKC_US    

 

Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Jun 23, 2012