Penn State Removes Joe Paterno Statue

[drm604]

http://gothamist.com/2012/07/22/penn_state_removes_joe_paterno_stat.php

After a wide-reaching child abuse scandal has rocked the university, Penn State finally removed the statue of its beloved and flawed football coach Joe Paterno this morning. The AP reports, "Workers lifted the statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as the 100 to 150 students watching chanted, 'We are Penn State.'"

The university made the decision after an independent investigation from former FBI director Louis Freeh found that Paterno apparently lied about how much he knew about former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's child abuse. The scandal, which involved countless boys claiming that Sandusky abused and raped them (and Paterno and university officials knew about the allegations but never went to authorities), led to Paterno's retirement and Sandusky's eventual conviction, as well as soul-searching for a school that relies on the football program Paterno built.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Good Riddance. nt

[KansDem]

2. Put "Joe" in with Jerry.

They can share the same cell.

[Pat Riot]

3. Something about a barn door after the horse left comes to mind.

Further irony is what a plaque with the statue says. I haven't seen this mentioned, so forgive me if it has, but there's words to the effect of "When I'm gone, I don't want people to say I was a great coach. I want people to say I made Penn State a better place to live."

We need to keep being loud about Corbett's part in this. I mouth off about it any chance I get.

[drm604]

5. Yes.

Corbett used the AG's office as a political tool to get himself elected Governor. Prosecuting Sandusky didn't fit into that.

[blue neen]

7. Agreed.

We cannot let anyone forget that Tom Corbett chose to drag his feet, thereby enabling Sandusky to victimize more children.

Believe me, Tom Corbett is loving the focus on Joe Paterno right now...it takes the spotlight off of him, but they ALL deserve the focus. All of the enablers, all of the complicit, all of those in authority who could have stopped the abuse. That definitely includes Tom Corbett.

[drm604]

4. What really gets me is the students who still support him.

I think football is almost like a religion for some people. It's not open to reason.

[Third Doctor]

6. It certainly is

down here in Tuscaloosa. They take it a bit too far.

[Pat Riot]

8. yes, and I also think

Today's huge fine and ban does nothing to separate the game of football from the crime from the reputation of Penn state as an educational institution. And who will really pay that fine? It's a state institution, so won't that fall on taxpayers in a circuitous way?