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Silver linings do not diminish tragedies; they merely make them possible to stomach. About the only way to avoid curling into a fetal position of despair upon hearing what Jerry Sandusky did to, took from and killed in those boys was to tell ourselves a little white lie about how something positive could come of this tragedy.
And then, somewhat shockingly, a silver lining did come in the form of the now young men who one after another took the witness stand and said “this happened to me” and in doing so gave a voice to kids being abused right now.
You are not alone. You will be believed. There is help, they said.
And we were reminded what a small act of bravery can spawn, that courage is indeed contagious. This feels important now as everybody dissects emails between Penn State administrators recently released by CNN. They strongly suggest former Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno helped kill a plan to inform child-welfare authorities and The Second Mile Foundation of the allegations against Sandusky.
This is damning with faint praise, of course. The plan was weak, pathetic and woefully late. For all of its flaws, though, it likely would have prevented Sandusky from ever laying his sick and twisted dysfunction on Victims 1 and 9.
The mythology of Joe Paterno was that of a guy who did the right thing in a sea of wrong. The reality is, he was a coward. And he is a reminder that cowardice is also contagious.
All it took was a meeting with Paterno to get then Penn State athletic director Tim Curley to email university vice president Gary Schultz and president Graham Spanier with a change of plans. They would not be taking their shower problem to authorities.
“After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps. I am having trouble with going to everyone but the person involved. I would be more comfortable meeting with the person and tell them about the information we received and tell them we are aware of the first situation,” was Curley’s message, according to CNN’s reporting of the email chain.
They knew this opened them up to litigation. Other emails underline this. That they did so anyway speaks to how easy it is to do what is convenient over what is right, of how contagious cowardice really is and how none of us are fully inoculated.
We may never know what was said in that meeting, much less what led to otherwise intelligent men somehow justifying to themselves that responding to a serial child predator by taking away his key and asking him nicely to stop was acceptable.
That they believed this was the “humane” course of action makes me want to punch all of them in the face.
The reality is they did not have the Ws to give themselves political cover from harboring a sexual predator. JoePa already had been facing pressure to step aside because of age and record. This scandal likely would have been the end of The Paterno Era.
So they had a choice: Save themselves? Or save the kids?
We know how they chose, of course. This is the benefit of hindsight. We know that Curley, Schultz, Spanier and JoePa put their jobs, their legacy, their pursuit of Eddie Robinson’s wins mark ahead of kids.
What does this mean? Ask Victim No. 9.
He was 12-years-old when Sandusky began abusing him. It was 2006, or five years after Curley met with Paterno and sent that email. A jury found Victim 9 credible when he testified to being repeatedly orally and anally raped by Sandusky in the three years following.
“He started getting physical, like having me touch his penis and stuff,” Victim 9 testified. “He made me give him a, suck his penis is how you’d put it. He came in my room, pulled his pants down, laid on top of me, and kind of forced it in.”
Do you know how much courage it must have taken to say that in open court? A little more than it would have taken Paterno to say “my last act as coach of Penn State University is to stop a serial child predator?” back in 2001.
What blows my mind is there are still some JoePalogists who want to pretend he did nothing wrong, that he was a victim of Penn State’s lack of loyalty. There was Nike chairman Phil Knight at his funeral calling him a hero. There are those who say this was one mistake on an otherwise pristine career, those who say it is wrong to speak ill of the dead.
It most certainly is. It is just as wrong to perpetuate a myth, to ignore cowardice, to pretend what we want to believe a person was is actually who they were. If there is a silver lining to this tragedy, it is the reminder that we all have choices — mostly on smaller levels, though some bigger — every day.
Be courageous. Or be cowardly.
Just remember both are contagious, and how you choose is ultimately who you are.
