Being a Penn State alumnus, I felt it important to put together my thoughts on this situation at my university.
I am a lifetime member of the alumni association and have had season tickets since 1977. My wife, my son and my daughter-in-law are all Penn State graduates.
I can honestly say that when the announcement came down that Joe Paterno would no longer be the football coach, I was overcome with emotion and shed some tears.
Our alma mater states emphatically: "May no act of ours bring shame, to one heart that loves thy name, may our lives but swell thy fame."
These men have certainly swelled our fame, but not in the way that we wanted. There is a lot of shame to go around.
I could not believe that my alma mater had come to this. I do not feel badly for Joe. I feel badly for the university. It is embroiled in maybe the biggest scandal in college athletics.
How a grown man of 28 could just run out of the locker room and call his father after seeing what he had seen is incomprehensible to me. To call his father and be told to get out of there? To wait until the next day to go to Joe and report the incident?
What has happened to our society?
I don't care about doing what was right legally. Then when he finally did go to Joe and report the incident, Joe simply called Tim Curley to report it.
I cannot believe the person who had been so instrumental to my university - a scholarly man, a man of the highest integrity - could possibly think that it was enough to just pass this up the line.
Then to top it all off, how could these administrators dare to sweep this under the carpet? I don't know what they were thinking and maybe we will never know, but they did nobody any justice.
To think that Sandusky was allowed to still come on campus and still be involved with the Second Mile is crazy. Telling Jerry that he wasn't allowed to bring kids on campus anymore, what did this accomplish?
Curley himself said that it was unenforceable. That he was allowed to maintain an office and still be associated with the university is horrendous. What happened to success with honor?
No one had any honor here.
All I can say is that Joe, being a father and a grandfather, should have done something more. He should have called the police and broke this thing wide open. Mike McQueary should have been the hero in all this. He gets the kid out of there and calls the police.
He didn't do it.
The right thing has now been done. It had to be a clean sweep. We must start over with a new administration and football staff. Let the healing begin.
In closing a line from "A Few Good Men" sums this up.
Private Downey asks Corporal Dawson, "What did we do wrong? ... We did nothing wrong." Corporal Dawson replies: "Yeah we did ... We're supposed to fight for people who can't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willy."
McQueary, Paterno, Curley, Schultz and Spanier did not fight for those poor kids, and now we all have to take the consequences.
Clark R. Adelman
Altoona
Maintaining belief in JoePa
Before you chastise me, and many others, for supporting Joe Paterno, I would just like to ask why.
Why should I believe Joe Paterno allowed children to be molested and raped? Why should I think Joe Paterno acted immorally and turned the other cheek? Is it because the media makes you think I should?
Is it because you read the 23-page grand jury presentment and you are disgusted? I read it as well. I read it many times. I am disgusted. I also know what a grand jury presentment is; it is not a statement of those interviewed.
It doesn't say, "Joe Paterno said this, Joe Paterno was told this." It doesn't at all. It doesn't say, "Joe Paterno didn't follow up after he alerted his superiors."
Actually, we would have no clue if he did or did not by reading it. It is a summary and opinion of the grand jury. It is the prosecution's attempt to prove its case. It only says what it, the prosecution, needs to say to show its case.
Paterno was never indicted, unlike others (Curley, Schultz) who testified before the Grand Jury. Joe was actually deemed "to have done the right thing" by the Attorney General.
There is no "and by the way, Joe Paterno tried to follow up on this" in the presentment. Why would there be? How does that help the prosecution's case? It is pure speculation.
So the public will listen to the Skip Baylesses or the Cory Gigers who claim immorality by Paterno and point to an inaction that we don't truly know exists and many will believe that.
Cory Giger? Yeah he's been on ESPN and CNN now. He's talking about Sandusky, I mean Paterno. I, as well as many others will wait for the true facts to come out because I feel it would be irresponsible to do otherwise.
Because I do believe there is something to who Joe Paterno is. I don't believe a man who has turned down millions of dollars, lucrative NFL positions, anything he wanted and decided instead to live modestly in a small home in central PA, pay millions and millions to help students and other philanthropic adventures, always preached right and wrong, and lived his life working for a university, would ever put himself before a child's well being.
What disgusts me and many other Penn Staters and central Pennsylvanians is the fact that a man who has always stood for what is right and how to live your life could possibly be chastised by the media as being immoral and ultimately be fired over the phone before the facts even come out.
Society loves a tragic story and if Joe Paterno is who I truly believe him to be, once facts come out, society will only have itself to blame.
Can we talk about Sandusky now?
Chris Mueller
Altoona
'Pray for the children'
As a long-time Buckeye fan living near State College, I have had to endure a lot of well-deserved ribbing about Tattoo/Tresselgate.
I make no excuses for the mistakes Ohio State has made, and they are facing the music with the NCAA.
While I could start picking on my PSU friends about their university's recent and ever-expanding debacle, the situation is so horrendous that I will just say, "Pray for the children."
Denis J. Navarro
Altoona
Poor choice of words
In a letter to the Mailbag on Nov. 13, Duane Walters said "what happened to those children [concerning Jerry Sandusky] was unfortunate."
When you break your great-grandma's vase, that's unfortunate. What happened to those children was disgusting, deplorable and words the Mirror can't print.
Then there's Helen Morrow, who worked for child welfare for 30 years. She didn't have the decency to even mention the children.
These people and others say "Paterno did what he was supposed to do."
In what universe?
No real Christian or believer in God would have ever turned their backs on these children.
When Paterno saw they were going to cover this up, as in 1998, he should have told Spanier, "If you don't stop this, I am."
Evidently the legal obligation far outweighed the moral one. Sometimes the good a person does is overshadowed by the bad things they do or allow to happen.
Sandusky started The Second Mile 30 years ago. I think he was defiling children before that, and people knew it.
You ignore the children and treat Paterno like a saint. Only doing what your supposed to do is an excuse to what you should have done.
What's next, blaming the children?
Dennis C. Shore
Altoona
Let the legal process play out
I think it is about time for everyone to lay off Joe Paterno. He has been vilified this past week while Sandusky shops in State College.
If Joe has committed a crime, then we all deserve to know what it is besides "a moral obligation."
We don't even know what Mike McQueary's role in this was, either, and he is squirming in his pants to get his story out. We need to let the legal process work itself out.
One has to wonder what role Ray Gricar had in the 1990s. The Ray Gricar I knew - he lectured several of my classes - was tough as nails and was out for blood if he had a case against you. His decision to close the case simply blows my mind. The cover-up starts there in my opinion.
Keith England
Williamsburg
Cover-up brings pain to alum
I went to PSU for a year then when to Pitt for four more years. My wife is a PSU alum. I love PSU and Paterno is/was respected by the entire nation as I have discovered in my travels.
I hurt.
The university people covered this up for 10 years or so. This is painful. This pain that I have is unlike any pain that I ever have had.
Michael Mezmar
Harlingen,Texas
