When An Act Of Ours Brings Shame

Wednesday was the end of an era, a day no Penn State fan or alum ever thought they'd see.

After a 61-year career at Penn State, legendary coach Joe Paterno and President Graham Spanier were fired after the school became embroiled in a child sex abuse scandal nearly a week ago. 

The press conference was aired live on local news stations shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday and, after the shock of the news wore off just enough to listen to the rest of the press conference, what I found most interesting were the questions the reporters asked.

They questioned why the board of trustees, after such a long career, didn't have the decency to tell Paterno that he no longer had a job in person, reporters repeatedly asked what the coach did wrong and why he was not able to finish out the season—or his career—with any dignity. 

Those questions prove that Happy Valley, not just Beaver Stadium is -or was- Joe's House.

Of course, the board of trustees did what it had to do. How could you keep someone on staff who openly admitted that he could have (and should have) done more? But I think it says something about the man's impact on a university if even the media seemed upset by the decision.

The days following the news that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky allegedly used his charity as a front to recruit young boys to abuse can only be described as horrific.

I did not get through the entire 16-page grand jury report, but I read enough to know that if the information is true, the man deserves the maximum sentence, if found guilty. 

Following Wednesday night's announcement, it was reported that students had taken to the streets and by 11 p.m., a rally had become a riot. According to reports in today's Daily Collegian, a photographer was pelted by a rock, a news van was knocked over and stomped on and two light posts, one on Beaver and one on College, were knocked down.

That is not Penn State. Rally? Yes. Make your opinion known? Absolutely. But don't further embarrass a school.

We need to remember that young lives were ruined at the hands of a former Penn State football coach. What happened to those boys is horrible and inexcusable and every single person who played a role in it must be held accountable, even Paterno.

But for those of us who once called Happy Valley home, it's unbelievable.

I was, I admit, defending the coach's innocence. He fulfilled his legal obligation, notified the appropriate people, right? But you just can't justify it. I tried because I just couldn't believe that this larger-than-life man didn't do everything in his power to prevent a child from getting abused. The man was severed from the myth, and it's sad.

While we, the Penn State community, can't do anything about the unraveling scandal but read reports with horror, we can affect how our school moves forward.

While iconic, the football program does not define Penn State or its students and the disgusting deeds of a few cannot mar the entire school.

Now that we've officially cleaned house, the question still remains, can we get over this? Can we still bleed blue and white proudly? One answer, one I'd like to believe in, came from an unlikely source — an Ohio State fan.

"You are not Joe Paterno. You are not Tim Curley. You are not Gary Schultz. You are not Graham Spanier, and you are sure as hell not Jerry Sandusky. Their alleged sins are not your own. They may be the most recognizable faces of your beloved program, but they are not Penn State," the anonymous author wrote. "They are not a 156 year old center of higher learning. They are not a century of football tradition. Their flaws cannot eclipse the innumerable scientific, artistic, and humanitarian contributions your university, and its 44,000 students and 570,000 living alumni have made and will continue to make to the world at large. The spirit of a program, of a university, and of a state is so much bigger than any one person."

While the act of some of our own has brought us shame, remember, as so many Facebook pages now say, we are still Penn State.