"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," said Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI who was hired by university trustees to look into what has become one of sports' biggest scandals. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.
That says it all, the sad and damning summary of the Freeh report on the Penn State scandal and tragedy.
It is also a commentary on our times where so often the credo “Image is Everything” is the prevailing philosophy. All the bigwigs at Penn State, President Spanier, V.P. Schulz, Athletic Director Curley and the legendary Coach Joe Paterno all were involved in the cover-up in the name of protecting the image of the university. The tragic consequences of their deceptive actions have affected too many lives by allowing the predator, Jerry Sandusky, to carry on his bestial sexual activity.
Joe Paterno was a living legend for so long that we are still incredulous. We have heard so often the tales of his “students and character first, football second” that it became a national mantra. Now the myth is destroyed. It is a great tragedy but dwarfed by the effects of his and other’s negligence in allowing Sandusky to seek prey, which created the worst tragedy in the many lives affected.
Can we learn from this horrible lesson? I hope so. Too many people, companies, bankers, politicians et. al. are prone to hiding or avoiding the truth in order to protect their images.
The Penn State affair is vivid testimony of the tragic consequences.
Survival and self preservation are foremost at all costs. These boys were nobodies and shouldn't be allowed to stain a great institution. Everyone thought 'this' could be contained and managed. Sometime we're wrong and are the worse for it.
ReplyDeleteAlmost impossible to believe that so many smart people could be so dumb.
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