Sunday, January 22, 2012

Passing of a Giant.

This Joe Rexrode piece sums up how I feel. 

"It's an incredibly sad ending to a wonderful life. And if you're going to read one thing on Paterno today, please read this David Jones piece.
    There will never be a completely satisfactory explanation for the things that have come to light in the past couple months. But you'll never convince me that Paterno was anything but a good human being. Some people can't handle those two ideas together. It's called a tragedy."
Here is the link, with links to other stories.

An addendum from Pat:

Unfortunately for JoePa and all that defend him, one grievous mistake is more than enough to define a person's life.

I find it abhorrent that Paterno is made to be a hero.  The true victims in this case were pissed on by Paterno, overlooked, hidden and buried to protect interests that were undoubtedly shared by JoePa.  A direct correlation is easily made between Paterno's inaction and misjudgement (phrases which give JoePa the benefit of the doubt) and subsequent abuses.  Death should not allow his eulogy to overlook massive faults.

To me, I'll always remember Joe Paterno as a hypocrite, a man who attempted to make others better and held people to a moral standard he himself could not achieve.  These are the worst of them, the frauds and liars.

For all his many achievements, his failure was greater.

7 comments:

  1. that's an incredibly ignorant statement.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Surely I am less informed on this than many but I know enough to see that when faced with a defining moment, joe pa chose wrong. He failed to fo the right thing for ten years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't know if I would go as far as Pat. But it's also irresponsible to say his legacy shouldn't be forever tarnished by whatever his role in this situation was. By his own words he should have done more.

    Does it take away from the many good things he did for Penn State, and for the football players who still defend him for his role in their development? No. He still had a positive impact on a huge number of people.

    His silence also contributed to allegedly unspeakable crimes being committed against kids. That doesn't get forgiven either.

    I'm not really qualifed to say how those two things combine, and what they mean in terms of what Joe Paterno's legacy is. I just know that you can't discount either of them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Should probably strike "forgiven" and replace it with "forgotten" in the third paragraph. It's not really my decision about whether to "forgive" joe paterno. I'll leave that to the victims and their families

    ReplyDelete
  5. I second Pat's opinion on this subject. Also, I feel it is incredibly inappropriate when people say its a shame, or something of the like, that his many good deeds are tarnished by these events. Its not a shame, he allowed this series of events to play out the way they have by not taking more action. If he had done more at the time this would not be nearly as big of an issue with regards to his "legacy".

    ReplyDelete
  6. Vince, I think you can take your statement one step further and say that if Paterno had done the right thing it would have been The exclamation of his legacy of character and greatness. Penn State would have suffered a bit in the short term and maybe Paterno would have as well but he would be remembered for the integrity with which he handled the situation instead of the lack thereof.

    ReplyDelete
  7. http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/01/31/news/doc4f27ebdad02c6435775997.txt

    we can also assume than that both pat and vince find that the medical student here did not do enough and is also fully to blame for the pornography of children.

    ReplyDelete