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by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author's program note. Today is Saturday, November 12, 2011. And Americans with well-worn pennants and blissful memories of picture perfect days like this when they were young and gleeful will today gather at gridirons around the nation... there to participate in the great rite of football. If they are lucky, alma mater will have a fight song as great as the one that ignites the crowd at Penn State... which causes even the most ancient and arthritic to jump up... and remember. when they were young, boundless in their hopes and expectations; loyal to God, country, college, and... the team.
We all know that feeling and we just cannot get enough of it. Thus, to put yourself in the mood, go to any search engine and find that fight song -- "The Nittany Lion" -- one of the best -- then turn the sound up and play it... "But of all the honored idols. There's but one that stands the test. It's the stately Nittany Lion. The symbol of our best..."
Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in the history of the Great Republic.
Until just a few days ago when the shocking, sordid facts of the scandal broke upon a first disbelieving nation, Joe Paterno, head coach at fortunate Penn State, was moving towards the end of his career wafted by the incense of millions of people around the nation... who venerated the man, his vision, what he stood for, and not least of all the golden touch that turned Penn State from a mere college town, to a site of pilgrimage for the faithful. It was heady stuff, as close to perfection as mortals ever know. All that was needed to complete the scene was the explosion of affection at his last home game... and a trip to the White House to receive the nation's highest honor, the Medal of Freedom, from the hands of the President of the United States, an event eagerly promoted by Pennsylvania's two United States senators, star struck like all the rest. A great American story was about to be concluded to the satisfaction of all.
But as any student of classics could tell you, this isn't how Fate works... as JoePa knew, for he was an unlikely student of the Roman poet Virgil and the "Aeneid" he read often in the original Latin. JoePa knew Nemesis, the goddess of retributive justice. And it was Nemesis who came to preside over his final sickening days at Penn State... which he left as pariah, not patriarch. And so a dazzling 46-year career came to an end with breath taking speed, obloquy, disgust, contempt, anger... and sadness.
What had happened, what had gone so terribly wrong? Here are the facts:
On November 5, 2011, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts relating to sexual abuse of eight young boys over a 15-year period, including alleged incidents that occurred at Penn State. A 2011 grand jury investigation reported that Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant, told Paterno in 2002 that he had seen Sandusky performing a sex act on a 10-year-old boy in Penn State's shower facilities. According to the report, Paterno notified Athletic Director Tim Curley the next day about the incident.
Here's where JoePa's storied career begins to unravel, for it is here that he decided to act for the good of his team, his "program", not the good of the victims and of the institution which hired him and provided every element for a supremely comfortable life.
Yes, this is the damning fact: Joseph Paterno knew... Joseph Paterno, fearful that his beloved program would be besmirched, decided to wink at the problem, hoping it would go away, rather than take the necessary action... which meant staying with it until it was well and truly solved.
JoePa had the responsibility to act... the need to act... the moral imperative to act... but he did next to nothing, thus showing clearly that here was a man who could prattle of leadership, of responsibility, of honor... but they were nothing but self-serving words... that when these traits were needed, JoePa had none of them.
And neither did anyone else at Penn State, where "honor" was a word in a rousing song... not the foundation for an institution of higher learning, humanity, and right.
The scandal is not that reprehensible acts were committed on the bodies of young boy who, all unknowing, maddened Sandusky and caused him to take terrible risks and do terrible deeds. That is not the scandal... that is a tragedy, frequent enough, a tragedy that everyone at Penn State, or wherever it occurs, can deal with, promptly and relatively easily IF the will and desire to deal with it be present.
The scandal is that Paterno, and the entire establishment at Penn State who knew the facts (and there were many such) chose not to act, thereby degrading themselves and their offices of honor, thereby giving the students, their charges, the worst possible example. And this lead to one of the most alarming incidents in the matter: the riot of Penn State students November 10 when they heard the news that Paterno had been removed by the Trustees of the university, they took to the street, not to remember and support the victims, but to support... JoePa. In short, they came down firmly, resolutely and violently on the wrong side, the side where there was no honor and no humanity. And these some of the brightest students in the land, the most privileged, the most likely to succeed. Their choice, their actions, their lack of vision were telling. How had a great institution fallen so low that its students could be so wrong in their selection?
Winning is not everything, and never was.
The cause of this great problem has been obvious for years to all who had eyes to see. The administrators of great educational institutions, the pride of a great nation, have allowed their progressive, humane principles to be insulted, demeaned, devalued. Once the greatest and most significant parts of these institutions, the liberal arts have been steadily slashed by the people who made JoePa a god, people who made winning, merely a thing, into everything, the thing that humbles all else.
But this is wrong and has always been wrong.
Teaching students to be good citizens is more valuable than winning games, no matter that they are won in profusion and record number.
Teaching students about the values and responsibilities of the well lived life is more important than wearing some token of a victory that they did nothing to help achieve.
Working to transform a distressed planet in a myriad of ways, this is far more important -- and necessary -- than supporting, in any way, a squad of those manifesting every kind of anti-social behavior.
And no one exceeded Paterno in finding such people and using them for his ends.
And so Paterno allowed Sandusky, despite his detailed knowledge of this man and his mayhem, to keep a college title, an office and easy access to his prey, despite his 1999 dismissal. It was, he thought, good for his "program," his team, his power and control. So, too, the fact that from 2002-2008 46 of his players were arrested and charged with 163 counts; 27 of t hem were eventually convicted or pleaded guilty to a combined 45 counts.
Through all this the Nittany Lion was diminished, its shibboleths hollow, in the hands of the unworthy, majestic no longer. Now, therefore, must Penn State, bolstered by courageous and energetic leaders seize this opportunity to restructure itself, to become in fact, not merely in name, a great institution of humane values. This is your moment, people of Penn State and all others similarly situated. Seize it. For you who have lost your soul and direction, must take this opportunity to find them. "Fight for her honor, Fight, and Victory again."
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About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Jeffrey Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Lawrence Rinke http://ActionEqualsProfit.com. Check out Fast Cash Commissions -> http://www.ActionEqualsProfit.com/?rd=pb04Y2tY
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