The Lesson of Joe Paterno...Do the Right thing!...

From Jim: I think Joe Paterno is a good man that really screwed up. I believe he is extremely sorry for the awful events that occurred at Penn State in the showers of his locker room and the unspeakable behavior of his assistant coach. I believe him when he says he wishes he had done more at the time and that he deeply regrets the pain of the children and their families. Having said that, there is no doubt in my mind that he knows he should have called the police. He should have pressed the grad-intern for the details of what he saw. He didn't do the Right Thing and he knows it. Those above him are also to blame, but they're "administrators". They didn't have the close contact with Sandusky. They didn't have the "moment of truth" with the shaken intern. The real lesson is that the time to do the Right Thing is "time perishable". You have that window, when your values and core beliefs are on the line. It's brief and fleeting. Then you're locked into the forever of "Why Didn't You?" I've thought about how tragic this situation is. How the failings of proud men put little kids in harm's way. How they were sexually abused by a predator that should have been stopped years ago. How doe's Joe Paterno sleep at night, look in the mirror, greet his family? How doe's he answer "Why Didn't You?" The duty we owe to children is profound. They need all us to make sure they're safe and secure. They need us to protect them from evil. Joe Paterno knows that and he knows he failed when it really counted. That's got to be awful. I hope he can somehow find peace, but I don't how he'll do that. There are young people suffering to this day because he didn't do the Right Thing, and they didn't need to. Win/Loss? How about total loss.