Posted on 11/11/2011 11:53:03 AM PST by Colofornian
Let's say, to use the way Buzz Bissinger framed it, you are "the most popular and powerful man in Pennsylvania, with instant credibility."
You discover one of your neighbors, whom you can influence (or try to), has decided to abort their baby within the next 5-6 weeks. The dad says he was an eyewitness to the ultrasound of the "to be" male victim -- as his partner wants to kill the little guy.
And so what do you do?
Why, you do your civic duty, of course. You do what was tantamount to what Joe Paterno did. You sit down and write your Congressman.
"Dear Mailman. Please get this to my Congressman. Please end abortion. Signed. Joe Paterno. March 3, 2002."
Of course, not only would this have been a short-sighted approach, but women are pregnant for more than a weekend-- and, need I even say it, longer than it would take even to hand write a letter to your mailman...to be delivered to your Congressman, of course.
A "Paterno-like" response would mean...
...that you refrain from using your considerable influence to encourage -- even direct -- the neighbor "Dad" to defend his offspring-at-risk by securing authoritative advocacy beyond the internal family...
...Or that you ever even broach the subject matter again with the Dad of the child-at-risk herself -- even to clarify, "Yes, this child is still at risk. I really was there when my partner had the ultrasound. It really was a 'male young one' in the womb. There was absolutely no mistake to the details I saw."
Even if the "Dad" -- within weeks -- moves up to be the head of recruiting within the corporation you practically own...
...And you can ensure him plenty of "off the clock" time to make just one more trip to get advocacy help outside the family circle...to keep the abortion industry from bagging yet one more victim...
Still. It all remains a "family secret." Another victim is victimized.
Well, in hindsight, perhaps your female neighbor really never was pregnant? I mean, come on, you never actually saw the ultrasound picture, right? You can't launch a major investigation, right?
Is "Dad" a 100% credible person? And did you not assume a modicum of responsibility when you sat down to write the indirect letter to your Congressman? Did you not assume then that, yes, a pre-born baby in the next house over was at risk?
Tell us, Joe. Why did your "responsibility" conclude on March 3, 2002? Why do your supporters think it did?
Please, Joe. Please Michael McQueary. If you ever become my neighbor and see me being beaten up. Don't go tell your "Daddy" and have a 3-man huddle about it tomorrow morning. And Joe, are all you going to do about the beating is to tell your boss within 36 hours?
As columnist Scott Ostler wrote, "With responsibility comes responsibility."
And, per Ostler, "You need hindsight to tell you that you must do whatever you can to stop a dangerous criminal?" Yes, Ostler is right: "That's pathetic."
Is character to be defined and passed on to the next generation by doing -- and advocating for -- the 'bare legal minimum?'
Oh, what a fearful generation being raised on 'Reality Judge' shows this is.
Not enough inner sustained compulsion to 'do the right thing' on behalf of the least of these. And too much 'cover my legal buttism' or cover the glory of the image of my 'program' -- whatever is glorified as the given cultural idol of our times.
Beware of analogies . . . .
We now live in a society where there are no more behaviors that are “ right” or “wrong”.
Everything is now reviewed in hindsight as “probably I could have made another decision or perhaps have done a little more”.
Hey JoePa....life doesn’t give us “Instant Replays” on our moral decisions! We don’t get to “review the play” after we get caught 15 yrears later making a fatal error....
Oh, wait, as long as the statue of limitations isn’t up, the Law gets to make the call 15 years later....But you know what, there is no Statue of Limitaions on Morality.
And the ultimate “review of the play” is before God!
Having said all in the above post....we do have the ability to apologize for grievous mistakes or behaviors and ask for amends from our victims, the community and God.
Not seeing that with Paterno.
The man who saw the child being raped should have beaten the crap out of the rapist and rescued the child.
When Paterno found out he should have informed the police and then gone to the hospital and beaten the crap out of the rapist.
As soon as the he got out of the hospital, the child's male family members should have beaten the crap out of the rapist.
When no one else wanted to beat the crap out of the rapist, he should have been convicted and imprisoned where daily other prisoners would beat the crap out of him.
My view of the reactions to this disgusting crime is a severe lack of testosterone.
I really dig your stream of consciousness.
:)
McQueary, I believe, was in utter shock upon stumbling upon what he saw.
It's not like Sandusky was a stranger to him.
McQueary played Little League with one or more of Sandusky's adopted sons. McQueary then went on to play for the Penn State football team when Sandusky was the Defensive Coordinator. Now, here he was, six years after that, with the sudden power to unveil a scandal of huge proportions in...
...their neighborhood...
...campus...
...region...
...nation...
He ducked. Called his daddy. Huddled with Joe the next morning. Met with Joe's bosses about 10 days after that.
Once, he "cowarded" out in that original gut-check moment, nobody ever seemed to come alongside of him to put that Friday night "play" "under review." Nobody "upstairs" overruled his VERY BAD "on the field" decision.
Paterno is known to be a conservative, raising money for Republicans in PA.
I absolutely agree with you.
He saw a 10 year old boy being raped and didn’t pick up a heavy metallic object and smash the rapist over the head.
Nor did he grab the rapist, pull him off the boy, kick him in the balls, kick him in the face and kick him in the back of the head.
Nor did he call the police.
They are all scumbags here. All worthy of a bullet to the back of the brain. All of them. Whoever knew and didn’t call the police, they deserve to be shot.
I know they won’t be. I know they won’t even be punished. But I’m just saying, in a just world, they’d all be dead. Each and every one of them.
This is just the excuse making I was referring to. What kind of a man could see a young boy being raped and not done anything to stop it, right there and then? I don't care if it was his brother or best friend. I'll tell you, a "male" who is really not a man. A lowlife puke who should be shunned by all decent people. If it was my son who was being raped, McQueary would spend the rest of his life worrying about when I would unleash my righteous indignation on him.
There is no excuse except that McQueary has no testosterone and is in reality a worm, not a man. He and all those who make excuses for him and his ilk disgust me.
For his great field play, he got his desired coaching position at PSU!
McQuerry sold out those young boys for a coaching position. He’s no better than JoePa.
He has now been officially placed on "administrative leave" ... and is probably protected from being fired (in the short run) due to being a state's witness vs...
Sandusky
Curley
Schultz
Perhaps Paterno & Spanier
I think an undivertable u-turn has been undertaken on that role.
For example, according to this article, Casey and Toomey rescind support for Medal of Freedom nomination for Joe Paterno, Toomey, a Republican, has done a u-turn on supporting Paterno for the Presidential Medal of Freedom:
U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) announced today that they are rescinding their support for the nomination of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. They issued the following statement: "In light of the recent events in State College, we are rescinding our support for the nomination of Joe Paterno for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. We hope the proper authorities will move forward with their investigation without delay. Penn State is an important institution in our commonwealth. We should turn our attention to the victims of these atrocious crimes and ensure they get the help they need. Our hearts and prayers go out to them and their families.”
I saw another article indicating that Paterno initially had 16 Congressman supporting him for this medal...but that was before the scandal broke. More are likely to follow Toomey's direction.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.