A month ago I exercised my critical thinking and told you that there was way more to this Penn State scandal and gosh darn it, turns out I was right again!
By the way, I hate myself for referring to this as a scandal. Can we stop it with the scandal talk? This has been upgraded to a full-blown shit storm.
I also told you that there was nothing that could be done to give back those boys' lives. However, just like with families of murder victims who can't get their loved ones back, there is some form of justice that can be carried out to give some sort of closure.
The NCAA swore that today. They promised me that they were going to deliver 'unprecedented' punishments against Penn State.
Per usual, the NCAA let me down. I guess it's really my fault. How many times can I get my hopes dashed to pieces before I stop caring all together?
The punishments? No bowl games for four years. Which, really goes hand in hand with the stripping of scholarships because you aren't reaching bowl games with no talent anyways. Penn State was also fined $60 million. To me and you, that's a pretty big matzo ball. To Penn State? They wipe their asses with that kind of paper.
The thing that really irks me is that Penn State is being forced to vacate all wins since 1998--which was the first time that people covered up for Sandusky. You know what happens when the NCAA vacates a school's wins? The record books won't change to show that the other school won, they will just be blank. They get ERASED.
How convenient it must be for the NCAA to just erase all their problems when the rest of us have to live with ourselves every waking moment of the day. We all wish we had some magic machine to take us back to the moment when shit first happened and just have it all not happen in the first place but that shit doesn't exist.
I've already told you that there is nothing that can be done to take back what happened. How do you try and fix what happened? I'm not really sure. I don't even know if you can.
But if you make an attempt to, you have to do it way better than this. You just have to.
I didn't need the Freeh report to tell me that this place was evil. I could see that for myself. I sat here this morning and got really bummed out at the NCAA for not burning Penn State to the ground.
How do you start to make this better?
For starters, give them the 'death' penalty. For five years. No football program, whatsoever, for FIVE years. If the new Penn State leaders want to come out and say that this isn't about football, it's about the victims and their well-being, prove it. Put your money where your mouth is. Don't play football for five years and reflect on what you've become.
What went on at Penn State was unprecedented. It was unprecedented evil. A total lack of human compassion of every single level. Nobody chose to do the right thing from top to bottom. The punishment could never fit the crime in this scenario but you could do a lot better than that, NCAA.
I can't think of any scenario where an institution of higher learning failed to serve their purpose than Penn State did. This is it. This is the mountain top of failure. You can't let the worst of the worst off with a wrist slap. You just can't do it.
This has just been a terrible month for the human race. I'm embarrassed.
Showing posts with label Penn State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penn State. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
The Road To Glory
Former Penn State defensive coordinator and child molester, Jerry Sandusky, has been found guilty on 45 of 48 charges ranging everywhere from corrupting minors to being an all-around scum bag.
The guilty charges carry such a weight that Sandusky will be spending the rest of his natural life in prison. However, the best course of action for him at this point would probably be to grab the sharpest thing he can get his grubby little mitts on and drag it across his jugular. Something tells me that prison isn't going to be all puppy dogs and rainbows for him.
As the verdict rang out, I had one thought in my ever expansive mind: phase one complete. Paterno is dead, Sandusky will be soon, and now you go after the institution. Brick for brick this place was evil and brick for brick it will be taken down. There is too much in the shadows of every corner for the whole 'we didn't know' schtick to work anymore.
People knew and they covered it up. This whole thing has been shady since 1998 when they tried to get Sandusky for the first time. The Pennsylvanian District Attorney who was originally piecing a case against Sandusky disappeared for Christ sakes! He just up and went missing and they found his laptop in a river. That doesn't scream cover up, does it?
I had to stop myself but when Penn State released their statement on the verdict and how they were committed to finding out the truth about the former staff, I started laughing. They sounded like big tobacco trying to get me to smoke because there wasn't any parallel between cancer and smoking cigarettes.
George Costanza once said that if you truly believe something then it isn't a lie. These people had their heads up their asses for so long that they don't know any better. They have become so naive that they think they can say whatever they want and we'll just blindly nod our heads in approval.
I think the best way to handle this situation from this point on is exactly what you would do if you had a house with a history of murder in it. You would bulldoze it. That's exactly what should happen to Penn State. Erase it off the map. It has a taint to it that no statement or amount of bleach would be able to fix.
Raze it to the ground. Hey, build it again for all I care, just don't build your foundation on ruining young boy's lives and then covering it up. It tends to scare away the recruits for your football team.
There's going to be a lot more to this firestorm in the coming days and months. Sandusky's lawyers are going to do their best to make sure their client doesn't get skull crushed in the first thirty seconds that he's been administered to the state. And the good state of Pennsylvania is going to do their very best to find and prosecute everybody who had a dirty hand in this mess.
The thing that cannot be lost though is that some things can never be fixed. No matter what happens from this point on is just retribution and not redemption. There are lives, for better or for worse, that will never be the same or ever have the potential that most of us get. And that fucking sucks.
The guilty charges carry such a weight that Sandusky will be spending the rest of his natural life in prison. However, the best course of action for him at this point would probably be to grab the sharpest thing he can get his grubby little mitts on and drag it across his jugular. Something tells me that prison isn't going to be all puppy dogs and rainbows for him.
As the verdict rang out, I had one thought in my ever expansive mind: phase one complete. Paterno is dead, Sandusky will be soon, and now you go after the institution. Brick for brick this place was evil and brick for brick it will be taken down. There is too much in the shadows of every corner for the whole 'we didn't know' schtick to work anymore.
People knew and they covered it up. This whole thing has been shady since 1998 when they tried to get Sandusky for the first time. The Pennsylvanian District Attorney who was originally piecing a case against Sandusky disappeared for Christ sakes! He just up and went missing and they found his laptop in a river. That doesn't scream cover up, does it?
I had to stop myself but when Penn State released their statement on the verdict and how they were committed to finding out the truth about the former staff, I started laughing. They sounded like big tobacco trying to get me to smoke because there wasn't any parallel between cancer and smoking cigarettes.
George Costanza once said that if you truly believe something then it isn't a lie. These people had their heads up their asses for so long that they don't know any better. They have become so naive that they think they can say whatever they want and we'll just blindly nod our heads in approval.
I think the best way to handle this situation from this point on is exactly what you would do if you had a house with a history of murder in it. You would bulldoze it. That's exactly what should happen to Penn State. Erase it off the map. It has a taint to it that no statement or amount of bleach would be able to fix.
Raze it to the ground. Hey, build it again for all I care, just don't build your foundation on ruining young boy's lives and then covering it up. It tends to scare away the recruits for your football team.
There's going to be a lot more to this firestorm in the coming days and months. Sandusky's lawyers are going to do their best to make sure their client doesn't get skull crushed in the first thirty seconds that he's been administered to the state. And the good state of Pennsylvania is going to do their very best to find and prosecute everybody who had a dirty hand in this mess.
The thing that cannot be lost though is that some things can never be fixed. No matter what happens from this point on is just retribution and not redemption. There are lives, for better or for worse, that will never be the same or ever have the potential that most of us get. And that fucking sucks.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Unhappy Valley
I, like most children in our society, was raised based upon three simple principles: always be honest, never steal, and always try to do the right thing.
As you get older, you realize that sometimes these guidelines get in the way of certain areas in your life. For instance, you're going to have to lie to your significant other from time to time, that's just the way it is. It's for self-preservation.
However, the major stuff isn't very hard to keep right. First of all, it's crammed down your throat everywhere you go. Your school, your job, your Home Owners Association...they all have codes of conduct and rules of ethics that must be followed or you suffer the consequence. It's the first paper they make you take home and sign every single grade from kindergarten to 12th.
Moral ethics are unavoidable. You know what they are, whether you use them or not, is up to you. This is something that can be said for all of mankind, big or small.
With that said, I have no defense for Joe Paterno. The man has been God in Pennsylvania for the last sixty years and the best he can do is pass the word along? You're Joe Paterno!
So McQueary comes to you and says he saw Sandusky doing "something" in the showers with a minor, no warning flags shot off in your head? What the hell could "something" possibly mean? Should it matter if the preceding words before that are "old man", "little boy", and "showers"?
Why didn't you march your khaki-ass down to the showers, pull Sandusky out of there, beat the hell out of him and then turn him over the authorities? Was it because you already knew, Joe? You worked with the man for 30 years. In 30 years he managed to keep his biggest and darkest secret from the man closest to him without so much as a hint?
How big can a kingdom get before you don't worry about it crumbling to salt around you? Man lets legend consume him and then it becomes too late to stop. You become bigger than you are and you forget what's right.
Instead of sitting in your house, feeling sorry for yourself for getting fired, maybe you should read the Grand Jury release, Joe. It's 23 pages, of vivid description, of what your friend Jerry Sandusky did to ruin the lives of children he was pretending to help. He SNAKED them out of the charity he set up, Joe. He showered with them on Penn State's campus, in your kingdom. Where the hell where you, Joe?
Paterno said looking back now with hindsight, he wish he had done more. Well look back further, Joe. All your accomplishments, the record bowl wins, the two national championships, and all the years of wearing the crown...it's all hollow. It all loses meaning and there is a tarnish on everything. You traded your moral fiber for a cardboard crown.
But hey, what does it matter. You're 84 years old, you've lived your life. These boys, however, are now in their twenties. What about their lives, Joe? What are you going to do for them?
As you get older, you realize that sometimes these guidelines get in the way of certain areas in your life. For instance, you're going to have to lie to your significant other from time to time, that's just the way it is. It's for self-preservation.
However, the major stuff isn't very hard to keep right. First of all, it's crammed down your throat everywhere you go. Your school, your job, your Home Owners Association...they all have codes of conduct and rules of ethics that must be followed or you suffer the consequence. It's the first paper they make you take home and sign every single grade from kindergarten to 12th.
Moral ethics are unavoidable. You know what they are, whether you use them or not, is up to you. This is something that can be said for all of mankind, big or small.
With that said, I have no defense for Joe Paterno. The man has been God in Pennsylvania for the last sixty years and the best he can do is pass the word along? You're Joe Paterno!
So McQueary comes to you and says he saw Sandusky doing "something" in the showers with a minor, no warning flags shot off in your head? What the hell could "something" possibly mean? Should it matter if the preceding words before that are "old man", "little boy", and "showers"?
Why didn't you march your khaki-ass down to the showers, pull Sandusky out of there, beat the hell out of him and then turn him over the authorities? Was it because you already knew, Joe? You worked with the man for 30 years. In 30 years he managed to keep his biggest and darkest secret from the man closest to him without so much as a hint?
How big can a kingdom get before you don't worry about it crumbling to salt around you? Man lets legend consume him and then it becomes too late to stop. You become bigger than you are and you forget what's right.
Instead of sitting in your house, feeling sorry for yourself for getting fired, maybe you should read the Grand Jury release, Joe. It's 23 pages, of vivid description, of what your friend Jerry Sandusky did to ruin the lives of children he was pretending to help. He SNAKED them out of the charity he set up, Joe. He showered with them on Penn State's campus, in your kingdom. Where the hell where you, Joe?
Paterno said looking back now with hindsight, he wish he had done more. Well look back further, Joe. All your accomplishments, the record bowl wins, the two national championships, and all the years of wearing the crown...it's all hollow. It all loses meaning and there is a tarnish on everything. You traded your moral fiber for a cardboard crown.
But hey, what does it matter. You're 84 years old, you've lived your life. These boys, however, are now in their twenties. What about their lives, Joe? What are you going to do for them?
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