I’m just now doing some extensive reading on the Penn State/Sandusky/Paterno/good old boy scandal. And I’m really trying not to throw up after I read one of the more graphic reports about what Sandusky did to a young boy in the shower room.
We are all asking, “why?” of course. Or at least, all people with any moral compass as asking that. Here’s a quote from a NY Times article from a rioting student at Penn State:
“We got rowdy, and we got maced,” Jeff Heim, 19, said rubbing his red, teary eyes. “But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend.”
Gotta love the way this kid views responsibility: It is the fault of the board of the university that the students are rioting because they fired a “legend.” Yeah, a legend that is now destroyed because it was more important to close ranks, protect those in power rather than the vulnerable, and to win than to be honorable.
It costs to be honorable. It always has. It always well. And when I hear something like this, I am reminded of the words in Matthew 10:26, “Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are” (The Message Translation).
Secrets do come out. Today, when those secrets are loosed, everyone really does know how things are because news travels instantaneously.
As overwhelming and challenging I often find our 24/7 wired connections to be, they can also be a huge force for the good. The entire world now serves as the village needed to rear the children.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the horror of this story, and the culpability of so many “legends” will end up suggesting that everyone live with greater awareness that morals matter a whole lot more than winning at football. The end is very much not worth the means when the means destroys others in the process.
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