Joe Paterno, RIP?
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Joe Paterno died this morning, January 22nd, of lung cancer. Paterno never smoked, to anyone’s knowledge, but nevertheless, he succumbed to the disease early this morning. The Internet is teeming with messages of “RIP Joe Paterno.” Why?
Joe Paterno was a football coach, not a research scientist who discovered a vaccine against Ebola. Mr. Paterno did not fight world hunger, or save sick children in a third world country. He was a football coach, who not only didn’t save sick children in a third world country, he ignored quite a few in Pennsylvania. Children who were being molested by his former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky.
Joe Paterno knew that Jerry Sandusky was a pedophile, and when he could have made the right choice, the only choice that made any sense, he chose to ignore the molestation. He chose to protect Penn State football. In other words, Joe Paterno chose a game over the lives and safety of children. Joe Paterno never contacted police. He kept it “in house”, and we all know how that turned out-the board told Sandusky to turn in his keys. I guess, in the world of Penn State, it’s fine to rape young boys, just don’t do it on our property.
Joe Paterno didn’t make a mistake, he didn’t fumble or drop the ball. He chose a path, he chose it with malice aforethought and he walked it with conviction. He knew exactly what he was doing, he knew Sandusky was hurting young boys, but by God, Penn State football was more important. And it still is, if the comments and photos I am seeing are any indication.
Folks, it’s a game. Like tennis, hockey, baseball, soccer, rugby, badminton and croquet. A game. The victims of Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno and the Penn State football program are not playing a game. These are real people, who were raped and molested and unimportant to Penn State. What mattered was the game.
Starting last night, when Paterno’s health began to rapidly decline, shrines appeared all over the campus of Penn State. Flowers, candles and notes were photographed surrounded by grieving, sobbing football fans and students. Remember the day Joe Paterno was fired? Thousands of football fans and students rallied behind HIM, demonstrating and turning over a news van in their “grief.” Grief over a football coach. That night, there was very little grief for the victims of Jerry Sandusky, just outrage that the man who had protected the Penn State football program rather than protect the victims of a serial pedophile had been fired.
If a Catholic bishop had done what Joe Paterno did, and was fired, would thousands of people have shown up to protest? No, because Catholic bishops have done what Joe Paterno did, and each time one of them is found out, they are met with outrage, a sense of betrayal and pain. Which leads me to believe that Penn State football is actually bigger than religion. How else do you explain the difference in reactions to the exact same event?
Jerry Sandusky was the predator, the monster who hurt so many young boys, and Joe Paterno was one of the people who let him get away with it. Joe Paterno was fired, but no charges were ever filed against him, and people still revered him like some sort of deity. Joe Paterno coached football; he taught college boys how to play a game. And while he was teaching college boys to play, he was ignoring young boys who were being molested. Penn State football is more important than religion, honesty, morals and the victims of a serial pedophile.
Is it sad that Joe Paterno is dead? I’m sure to his family and the millions of Penn State fans, it’s a terrible blow. Is it sadder that the death of Joe Paterno will be mourned by more people than came out and stood up for the victims of Jerry Sandusky? I think so. A piece of you dies when you are the victim of molestation, and it’s hard to revive a part of your soul. Eventually, with therapy and love, you can find hope again, but it’s so hard. Where are those flowers, those candles? Who cries for the victims of Jerry Sandusky?
I do.
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You’re an absolute idiot. A bleeding heart liberal who understands nothing about what actually happened. You are ignorant, and it is embarrassing.
Paterno needs to be buried with a football and a dildo. One equals the other at Penn state.
All I see are people chastising a man for a mistake that he admitted to and regretted. There is no excuse for what he did, but it doesn’t define his career. It shouldn’t be the only thing people remember. If you want to remember the bad that’s fine, but don’t make it seem like he did no good in the world, because he has. There is a reason that people are pouring in to remember the man.
But it DOES define his career. He valued his and his employers fame above the permanent damage done to probably dozens of children beyond the point that he could have stopped it. This was not just some passive “thing” that happened around Paterno. Paterno had the ability to stop further abuse, and he actively decided not to take any action.
He IS defined by his callous and continuous decision to allow a child molester to continually perpetrate horrors against children.
Here’s another victims perspective that brings further clarity, since you probably still don’t get it:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/22/1057341/-F**k-Joe-Paterno-(Updated)?via=stream
And what is the reason why people aren’t pouring in to remember the victims? Paterno doesn’t deserve sainthood.
I think many people don’t know how to react to it. Makes people more than uncomfortable to think about child abuse and what it entails for victims of it. Sometimes it ends up with victims just shutting down and not wanting to talk anymore about what happened to us, to make the other person feel okay if that makes sense.
As a survivor of childhood abuse myself, all this hero worship of a man that allowed young kids to be raped makes me sick to my stomach. Where is the concern for all those fuckin kids he let, yes let, Sandusky rape and forever change them.
Oh and as far as the schmuck up there talking about God is with us, and don’t overreact, just accept it. STFU… you have no idea how a victim will react, years after the fact even. Where was your godammed god when kids were being raped, helping a trophy winning coach instead maybe, maybe helping a foster parent keep hidden his “little secret” So forgive my not accepting your advice to just basically get over it and accept what was done. If I were to tell you what happened to me, your head would explode if you had an ounce of empathy in your body. Don’t bother coming back with god will help crap, I don’t believe in it.
Erin, a written post and I truly feel for your experience. Their is now and never will be any excuse for Paterno did in covering up for Sandusky and there will never will be any way he can make Sandusky’s victim’s whole again. However, with that being said, I think if you talked to the men who were products of his fifty years of coaching at Penn State you would find that he did more than just teach college boys to play football. The impact a football coach has on those young men, especially many of them from poor and broken homes, is tremendous. And, no, that does not earn him forgiveness. The millions of dollars he personally gave to to the university help many non athletes go to college that would have never been able to go. And, no, that doesn’t grant him forgiveness either. He doesn’t get forgiveness for those he failed to protect because he was wrong in not doing so, but he wasn’t a monster either.
Bill-I know that, and I did point out, using the word “monster”, who the real predator was in this scenario. My grandfather was a football coach. He integrated an entire high school, helped shape and mold young men. But he was not a hero, either. I have very specific criteria for a hero, and football coaches don’t meet it. Do I think that Joe Paterno is evil? Nope. I think he made the wrong decision and helped, whether on purpose or not, protect a monster. The hero worship, the names I was called yesterday by “St. Joe” worshipers-so bad my father felt the need to defend me-make me twitch because he was a football coach. Not a hero, a man who made a terrible decision. He should be remembered for all of it, good AND bad. Joe Paterno was not a deity, he was a man who leaves behind a very convoluted legacy and a tainted college.
I know Erin. I had meant to say “A well written post.” I had met Joe Paterno once or twice having had the pleasure of traveling with the Alabama Football team on a couple of occasions when they played Penn State. Through the years I had held him in high esteem because of the way he ran his program. When the truth came out I was truly devastated and felt betrayed. Now I feel myself doubting how many others are in the same position who will be found to also be hiding an ugly truth.
all you nazi’s just don’t get it!
Go ahead and crucify Christ again!
stupidity, doing the same things over expecting diffferent results.
convicted an innocent man without a trial, believed every TOM , Dick and harry, Because you know it all, and you’r just so damned smart!
You read something on a bathroom wall and thats gospel!
May God have MERCY on you!
Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.[1]
Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.
An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or “projecting,” those same faults onto another person or object.
You can take your god and shove him where the sun won’t shine you bible banging bone-head. After I read your rantings I shared this article with about 50 people and asked them to share it with another 50 people. It’s well done and the author knows what he’s talking about. I AGREE WITH HIM!!
Hey Elvis:
Didn’t your god have any mercy on the 10 year old who was raped in the shower? Saint JoPa fucked up big time when he failed to follow through with the information he had. I’m sick to my stomach to see all this adoration of Paterno knowing that he might have prevented more molestation if he had followed through with the report. He’s no saint – he was a scum bag enabler. Paterno admitted that he recognized this “with the benefit of hindsight”.
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for this post. You’ve really hit the nail on the head. Yesterday, I sat silently through all of the glowing discussion about the “hero” before church, and spent the rest of yesterday enraged at how these people who seem so caring in most cases could be so callous and blind.
At least I’m not the only one who sees reality. So, thanks again!
ERIN, first I am sorry you were a victim, and I hope you are doing ok. Thank you.
As a mother of a molestation victim, I feel Paterno should have done something more at the time. Imagine how happy the molester was to know he could keep it up for several more years and more victims.I think the university did the right thing to fire him, but I do not feel he should be made a hero, hero’s help not help to hurt.
Brenda,
First, you have my empathy and undying respect. I am not the mother of a victim, I was the victim and know so many others. We who have walked this road have a unique perspective, and see this for exactly what is was-culpability. Paterno did the absolute least he could do by informing those above him, but he never called authorities, he never looked any deeper and he never said to himself “Boy, this sounds a lot like what happened in the 90’s.” You are absolutely right; heroes help.
I’m having a hard time watching all this hero worship on the news. Someone even mentioned naming an airport after him. Please!!!
I’m very sad to hear about the death of Joe Paterno. My condolences to his family . Rest In Peace Joe !.
Sometimes we are victims, but we need not remain that way. Our body is ours, and anyone who uses it for selfish means, without consent, mature consent, is wrong, similar to that of a rapist, but with a lot of smoothing….the damage is done, it can be undone. Don’t hold hope that the perpetrator will ever change, or that it is your fault, or that you could have done anything differently. Accept that God has never forsaken you, that you have grown, that you can look back in clarity, that you can see the great suffering, and move forward. Do not over react, just accept, learn who you really are, and act to be the person you dreamed you were, not the one the perpetrator wanted you to be. God is with us all. Thanks for the post.
Why would your god allow something like this to happen?
I absolutely love what you had to say. I feel the exact same way. Those young boys are scared victims and does anyone care about them? Joe did not follow human morals. He cared too much about football and power.
Thanks Erin for writing so well how I also feel. That male oriented institutions are revered and protected is traditional and given the testosterone surrounding them, shielded from reality. Living with the realities of molestation never ends. I am so proud of the victims that have come forward to convict their abuser. Thanks to the goddess for the support that victims are getting. An action that is a compulsion for one is a life long agony for another.
He will now be worshipped as if he were a saint. The football culture is powerful in America and Saint Joe was a powerful figure. All kneel to Saint Joe!! What a disgusting sham this is. Well written op/ed here.
It makes no sense to me at all. Now reports are that Penn State is planning some sort of “honor” to be bestowed upon him. Football is more important than protecting children from a predator. Yes, let’s honor that legacy.