Welcome Back!

I'm back! Okay, I have even less free time than before but I'll try to write regularly. So let's get to it!

There are many things I don’t understand about the whole Joe Paterno hysteria.

1. The Freeh Report was not an investigation but a summary of investigation. He reviewed available information and drew conclusions from that. To the best of my knowledge, there were no interviews or investigative actions. The Paterno family says this report is flawed and incomplete. I agree.

2. Everyone is coming out to bash Paterno. This is the most amazing thing to me. Everyone has to say how he should have acted or how THEY would have acted. Let’s remember that whole “20/20 hindsight” thing. I used to say that, if somebody tried to stick a gun in my face, I would smack it aside and beat the crap out of the guy. Yeah, I was young and stupid. And the first time I actually had a gun stuck in my face, I meekly handed over everything I had. The point is that, unless you have been through a similar situation, with a really tough moral call, don’t tell me how you would have done better.

3. Wasn’t Sandusky the actual criminal here? I hope Sandusky is in prison, and in general population for the rest of his life. I hope the rest of his life is very painful. Because he is the one who was convicted. Shouldn’t we have an actual trial before we convict the others?

4. Didn’t Paterno report the incident? Didn’t Spanier say that Paterno was the least culpable? Sure, he should have done more. I believe the guilt that he did not do more to help those kids is what killed him. But he did do something. Why has everyone forgotten that? Why are we rushing to take down statues?

Before you cite homerism, I am a Penn State grad but not a Penn State fan. I am also raising my second set of kids and take child abuse at least as seriously as anyone else. It just irks the hell out of me that we are demonizing the easy target. Paterno did wrong. We’ll never know why he made the mistakes he made. I still say that we need concrete proof before we condemn the guy.