[Photo, former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky]

I’m finally feeling hope again after the rush of outpouring of anger and calls for Joe Paterno’s firing. If you don’t read or follow the news you may have missed the Grand Jury charges of 40+ counts of child sexual abuse against at least 8 children by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. More victims are coming forward, making the count as high as 17, although the average pedophile is believed to molest hundreds of children in their lifetime. Penn State Athletics director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz also were arrested on charges of perjury and failing to report what they knew about Sandusky’s abuse. There’s a long chain of men who failed—proof that Penn State talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk when it comes to ethics and honor. Once again, the outside looks great, but the core is rotten.

What gives me hope is that the instant the news broke the reaction was immediate. No one waited to see what might happen, or what the media would say. They reacted out of moral outrage and horror—as they should have and as Penn State’s Head Football Coach Joe Paterno FAILED to do when he was told nine years ago his assistant coach was sodomizing a 10-year old boy in the Penn State showers. Joe Paterno did what he was supposed to do, but he didn’t do the right thing. He told the Athletic Director what had been reported to him by an eye-witness, then he kept his mouth shut. Millions of Americans recognized what one of the supposedly best coaches in America didn’t, that DOING THE RIGHT THING requires moral action as well as following university policy. It didn’t help that Graham Spanier, the LOSINGEST University President in the history of the WORLD used his power and influence to keep Joe from speaking out. That is what is so disgusting—that people in a position to effect change, don’t, because of their fear of how it will make them LOOK. My mother did that, looked the other way. So did friends and neighbors. No one wanted to look at it, or even think about it, let alone talk about it. My mother said, when Pastor William “Bill” Mounts of Second Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN was found in his underwear surrounded by naked boys that, “It would be too embarrassing to say anything.” Mounts was simply forced out of the church, much like the Catholics do with their priests, covering up, alluding, giving excuses and letting him become someone else’s problem while the boys he molested (I know them and have heard their stories of being plied with pot and pills and allowed to drive his Jag) go on to lead lonely miserable lives.

Penn State had the university’s “best image” in mind, not the lives of children present on their campus. Penn State was more worried obviously about how an investigation could tarnish their image, not about how being sodomized by a grown man would ruin a 10-year old boy’s life. Penn State is no more a school of moral strength or conviction than Jerry Sandusky, pedophile, is a man of compassion. Penn State is only as strong as its weakest moral link and that link is Jerry Sandusky.

As someone whose life was ruined by pedophiles I can tell you that they don’t just hurt you physically, they kill your soul. They murder your innocence, they steal your life. No amount of money can replace what Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky and the administrators of Penn State STOLE from those children and the public recognizes that. I only hope that everyone charged is convicted and that they all go to a general population prison where they will have to worry about what happens to them in the shower. Then, and ONLY then, will they finally understand even a little, what they did to the boys they betrayed.

I don’t think anyone who hasn’t experienced the violation can ever imagine the rage, the anguish and the pain of that depth of betrayal of a child. To think that a man let his career stand in the way of the lives of dozens of boys when his supposed life was about molding and mentoring young men staggers my mind. If Joe Paterno and his son Scott defend his decisions then they are, in effect, saying if Scott’s three children had been sodomized in a shower by a grown man who pinned them against a cold tile wall and forced himself on them then threatened them, that Joe and Scott would “be okay” with that. If that’s the case, then I fear for the Paternos children and grandchildren and everyone who comes in contact with them. Graham Spanier is obviously a sociopath and will burn in hell. I’m sure Satan has a place reserved for him right next to Jerry Sandusky, whom child advocates are all praying for—praying that he kills himself while out on bail.

Is this a strong post? You bet it is. If if scares you, imagine what you might have felt had you been that naked, defenseless, frightened child, betrayed and lied to by someone you thought was there to protect and save you. You’ve not only lost your parents and been orphaned, but now your so-called rescuer is raping you? There is no hell hot enough for pedophiles and certainly not for those who cover for them.

When Joe Paterno is gone they will NOT write about him that he made Penn State a better place OR that he was a football coach. They will write, “He failed in his moral obligation as a father, a coach, a human being and a leader.”