Unforgivable

Even though many of you have undoubtedly read about this dozens of times already – including, quite probably, in one of those two editorials down and to the left of my ruggedly handsome headshot – here's one more opinion piece on the ongoing Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

Yes, I said the ‘Jerry Sandusky scandal,' not the ‘Joe Paterno scandal,' because our attention should probably be focused on the scumbag that robbed dozens of children of their innocence, not the seemingly-affable and highly-overrated college head coach who lost his job.

And while you could indefinitely debate the extent to which the priorities of the mainstream media and, indeed, people in general are totally misplaced (in fact, I wrote a column last week on exactly that subject – one you all should totally read, cough cough), there is one thing that shouldn't be up for debate: that Paterno deserved to be fired, and that he deserves all the media criticism he's received thus far.

Honestly, I'd rather not write about Paterno – this column would be a 3,200-character harangue against Sandusky if doing so would be even the slightest bit constructive – but there are people who, for whatever reason, think that Paterno shouldn't be endlessly and incessantly criticized for being an enabler of child rape for a decade and a half.

How does someone even argue that point? "Well, Paterno seems really nice, and he won the only college bowl game that actually means anything way back in like 1994, plus he said he wished he had done more about the whole ‘longtime assistant destroying the lives of children forever' thing, so…"

Seriously?

Now, I admit that I constructed something of a straw man just now, but I think it's warranted: there's no way you can argue, legitimately at least, that Paterno doesn't deserve every single ounce of outrage and vitriol directed his way.

And he totally deserved to be fired, too, let's not forget that.

Instead, though, there have been riots – riots – at Penn State over the matter. Not over the insidious ring of child rape that went on under their noses for the past 15 years, no – the rioters were united in ire and outrage over Paterno's "unjust" (note: I cannot physically put enough sarcastic quotation marks around that word, so I won't even try) treatment.

I'm just going to come out and say it: what the hell is wrong with these people?

Is there something in the water in Happy Valley, or something? Overturned news vans and tear gas should be sights one sees at an Occupy protest or outside an Israeli West Bank settlement, not near the home of a fired football coach, regardless of how old and friendly he may seem.

This, of course, also reveals the massive double standard of the matter. If Paterno were, say, a high school principal or a Catholic bishop or even a slightly less popular college football coach, he'd have lost his case in the court of public opinion about five minutes after the news broke.

But Paterno, for whatever unfathomable reason, is nigh untouchable, or at least exalted to the point that actually criticizing him for his wrongdoings becomes something other than the cut-and-dry issue it should be.

Why? Because he had back-to-back undefeated seasons when Richard Nixon was still politically relevant? Because he held the same job in collegiate athletics for 30 years too long? There are no worldly accomplishments that could possibly excuse anyone of being complicit in semi-institutionalized child rape, and the fact Paterno is effectively excused by some because of his somewhat impressive but ultimately trivial achievements in a game – not philanthropy or academia or anything that actually matters, but a game – hinges on being tragically absurd.

In short, anyone – old affable college coaches with impressive credentials included – that not only know about but tacitly allow child rape is just as responsible as the rapist, and that's unforgivable.

Email:eabenoit@buffalo.edu