There's a lot of bastards out there!

“After having so closely identified with all things Penn State over the past 15 years, the recent events have shaken our beliefs – and those of other alumni – to the core. Simply put, Penn State is way bigger than the alleged actions of a few people. To honor the victims, our goal is to raise over $500,000 – one dollar for each of Penn State’s 557,000 alumni. Please join us in showing the world what being a proud supporter of Penn State really means by making a donation in support of preventing and treating victims of sexual abuse and by adding your name to mine below.” 

It is in the nature of institutions to be conservative in the most old-fashioned sense of the word — acting to conserve a reputation, an infrastructure, a Golden Calf worshipped at the expense of common decency. 

It is in the nature of childhood sexual abuse for victims, perpetrators, and witnesses to want to disassociate themselves from the act. That’s why the law requires grown-ups to act like grown-ups. That’s why Tim Curley, the Penn State athletic director, took a leave of absence and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business, retired last week after being charged with perjury and failure to report charges of serial abuse in athletic facilities on the campus of a publicly financed institution of higher learning.

That’s why it was so patently offensive when Joe Paterno, college football’s Mr. Clean, took refuge early this week in having fulfilled his legal obligation by informing his superiors. And more offensive, days later, as the full horror of the story emerged, when he belatedly declared his intention to leave at the end of the season on his terms, dignity intact.

That’s why less than 12 hours after he announced his resignation, saying that he was “absolutely devastated” by “one of the great sorrows of my life,” the board of trustees acted in loco parentis, firing the patron saint of Happy Valley — who was, after all, just a football coach — and the university president with misplaced loyalties effective immediately.

The grown-ups finally decided to act like grown-ups.

Good riddance.

Sometimes we were guilty of regarding him as more deity than man,as if he presided over us in mythological stand-up form. He was as much our own conscience as he was a football coach, and we made that pact and imbued him with that sort of power because we believed he would wield it more responsibly than any of us ever could. Maybe that was naïve, but we came of age in a place known as Happy Valley and naïveté was part of the package, and now that word isn’t in our dictionaries anymore.

If Penn State’s Board of Trustees has, as reported, decided that Joe Paterno’s career as Penn State’s coach will end in this, his 46th season, then the move needs to be made immediately, prior to Saturday’s game against Nebraska. It then needs to be followed by the firing of school president Graham Spanier.

“If we can’t protect our kids, we, as a society, are pathetic.”

The man is a legend in his own mind, and that is not sporting hyperbole. He is supposed to stand for something more than sports; just ask him. For years he stood mute. For years and years while who knows how many more assaults occurred. How could NO ONE have done the right thing?

“I don’t even have words to talk about the betrayal that I feel,” said the mom of Victim Six. “[McQueary] was a grown man, and he saw a boy being sodomized … He ran and called his daddy?”

There are the obligations we all have to uphold the law. There are then the obligations we all have to do what is right.

It has become increasingly clear that while Penn State University President Graham Spanier has not been charged with breaking any laws, he did not do what is right — for his school or, more importantly, for the alleged victims of coaching legend Jerry Sandusky.

Spanier needs to step aside. If he doesn’t, the university board of trustees needs to take that step when it meets this week.

As for Joe Paterno, the face of Penn State and the man who has pushed for excellence on the football field and for the entire university, this must be his last season. His contract should not be extended.