Should Penn State remove Paterno's statue?

[Don]

After reading the entire Freeh Report twice (and that includes looking at all the notes and email evidence appended to the report) I have to say that Paterno failed in a big way. For all the good he did the school, this trumps it in spades.
As a fan of Penn State who went to Happy Valley for High School football camp, I have to take off the blinders and see the man for what he has been exposed as. One of life's big disappointments for me, another myth shattered.

[Angel]

I agree with you 100%, Don. It would be a slap in the face to the victims to immortalize him bu keeping the statue.

[StevePerryHair]

I agree too Don. It's a sick thing that football came before the well being of children. What a hero he could have been by outing it as soon as he knew. Covering it up could lead to nothing but shame. As it should. He may have done a lot of good things, but it doesn't excuse such a horrible choice he made to protect the team over those little boys damaged for life.

[Liam]

PSU needs to be disbanded, and leveled into a parking lot.

[RPM]

He had a choice to make, protect the children or the football program and penn state.
He has now been proven to be a liar (regarding his knowledge of the 98 investigation)
and a child rapist enabler. The statue will come down.

[Liam]

In light of all this news..I'm making a list of all the graves I'm going to piss on.

[conversationpc]

It's going to be a long time, if ever, before that university recovers from this.

[steveo777]

PSU needs to be disbanded, and leveled into a parking lot.

This may happen, as I suspect they are going to find themselves severely underfunded going forward. What rich person in their right mind is going to donate or will any substantial money to them?

[ebake02]

My take:

1.) This report is incredibly harsh and scathing, as it should be.

2.) It bothers me that none of the people who were knee deep in this were interviewed. You can't get a complete picture of what went wrong and where when you can't talk to the people who created this god awful shitty mess.

3.) Journalists are morons, I can't believe some of the bullshit these people are coming up with.

4.) While I do believe that the rage and anger people are expressing is justified (I share that anger), it is focused on the wrong person. It should be focused on Graham Spanier and not Joe Paterno. Every single one of the decisions made had to be approved by Spanier and he signed off on everything, at no point did he put his foot down and tell Schultz and Curly to notify the authorities.

5.) I believe the Board of Trustees knew more than the report says they did. The Board of Trustees has a huge amount of power and their authority is far reaching, they basically have their hands in everything. The fact that they were clueless and unaware until the grand jury investigation last year is complete and total bullshit.

6.) The statue shouldn't go anywhere. Penn State isn't going anywhere either.

7.) Since this broke I have gotten quite a few stares, funny looks and heard snide whispers from people in public when I wear my Penn State gear and I have a bad feeling that it's going to get worse for students and alumni like myself.

8.) It's going to take me awhile to digest all of this so I ask you to please be patient, I'm only beginning to form my opinion.

[ebake02]

PSU needs to be disbanded, and leveled into a parking lot.

I suspect they are going to find themselves severely underfunded going forward. What rich person in their right mind is going to donate or will any substantial money to them?

Terry Pegula added another $14 million to his commitment and donations are the highest they've been in decades.

[slucero]

rumor is that Penn State football is on the hit-list now..

[Angel]

My take:
4.) While I do believe that the rage and anger people are expressing is justified (I share that anger), it is focused on the wrong person. It should be focused on Graham Spanier and not Joe Paterno. Every single one of the decisions made had to be approved by Spanier and he signed off on everything, at no point did he put his foot down and tell Schultz and Curly to notify the authorities.

6.) The statue shouldn't go anywhere. Penn State isn't going anywhere either.

If it were your child that was molested would you have the same opinion? Anyone who knew ANYTHING should have had the balls to report it, with or without "permission." Those that knew something was going on and didn't report it were, by default, supporting molesting of children. If your child were molested and you found out that Paterno knew about it but didn't report it would you support leaving a statue in his honor up?

[slucero]

that stature will be anonymously taken down in the middle of the night..

[steveo777]

that stature will be anonymously taken down in the middle of the night..

No way can that statue stand. Those same anonymous might be just as well served to raze the buildings while they are at it.

[ebake02]

that stature will be anonymously taken down in the middle of the night..

No way can that statue stand. Those same anonymous might be just as well served to raze the buildings while they are at it.

I was thinking we could have a civil and intelligent conversation about this but I guess I was wrong. Level the college into a parking lot and raze the buildings? Get real people.

[ebake02]

that stature will be anonymously taken down in the middle of the night..

No way can that statue stand. Those same anonymous might be just as well served to raze the buildings while they are at it.

I was thinking we could have a civil and intelligent conversation about this but I guess I was wrong. Level the college into a parking lot and raze the buildings? Get real people.

You mean like JoePa, Curley and Spanier had intelligent conversations regarding how to "humanely" treat the resident child molester? Fuck Pedd. St. and all who stand up for it at this point. You should be ashamed. You stand up for this shit yet have the gall to rag on Ted Nugent fans as racists rednecks, what a piece of work. Clean your own house first.


http://www.suntimes.com/sports/13743267 ... years.html

Blow me Fact Finder, I'm not standing up for a pedophile or the acts that were committed. There is nothing I would like to see more than Sandusky, Spanier, Schultz and Curly hanging by their necks at the top of Beaver Stadium. Suspending the football program for two years only punishes the current players for something they had NOTHING to do with. It's like punishing your kid for something their friend did 10 years ago.

[Red13JoePa]

What the fuck would the NCAA have to say about this? Statue will come down over my dead rotting corpse, too.

Death penalty my ass. Show me the first shred of evidence Joe did, said, thought, acted, moved ANY way but what we KNOW is true. An email, a voice recording, a transcript, a text, a phone record, etc, OF and FROM him and THEN I will judge accordingly. Till then, fuck off.

[ebake02]

You should burn your fucking Pedd St gear, I'd never wear that shit again as I'd be too embarrassed.

I will always wear my Penn State gear proudly, might even buy more.

[Ehwmatt]

I haven't made my way through the Freeh report yet (on page 50 right now) and haven't read much of the press coverage, so I'm not overly qualified to discuss this on the merits.

But I will say that the religious cult-like zealous fervor that Paterno supporters have for him in the face of some seemingly damning facts is quite disconcerting and disturbing. But as humans, we tend to believe what we want to believe, and those beliefs often become our own personal realities.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Melt it down and sell it as scrap! Or uproot it, give it to the family and maybe they can put it somewhere else like at the cemetary. I'd feel the same exact way about it if it was my own family member who was victimized by the sodomite and that organization that willfully covered up the issue for so many years. When he covered it up, he became an accessory to the crimes that were committed. He talked at least one authority out of doing the right thing in this situation.

But it's not up to any of us to decide what the school will do with that statue if anything. But I'm putting my money on the school will have it removed simply because it being there will only keep the memory of this entire ordeal alive, each and every time people see it there, they will remember the crimes that were committed on that campus and he who chose not to do the right thing. The statue will also attract vandalizm as well, either to the statue, the campus, or both.

Too bad it wasn't Stanford Univeristy instead. Now that's a fucked up institution, but they do know how to make their payoffs and make things "dissapear" at Stanford.

[ebake02]

For me it comes down to the incident in 1998. The Dept. of Public Welfare was involved along with the campus police. A Public Welfare psychologist met with the child and one of their investigators met with Sandusky. He admitted everything to the investigator and that he had did it with other children but this investigator somehow came to the conclusion that no crime was committed. I would like to know why the Dept. of Public Welfare thinks hugging kids in the shower is not a crime.

[The Sushi Hunter]

What the fuck would the NCAA have to say about this? Statue will come down over my dead rotting corpse, too.

Death penalty my ass. Show me the first shred of evidence Joe did, said, thought, acted, moved ANY way but what we KNOW is true. An email, a voice recording, a transcript, a text, a phone record, etc, OF and FROM him and THEN I will judge accordingly. Till then, fuck off.

Didn't the report specifically outline emails and hand written note by Paterno which indicates that he knew exactly what was going on? I did think I read that in the report. No?

Focus your attention to the second page of this article:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Inqu ... php#page-2

[Liam]

Has Sandusky offed himself/been killed yet? I need some GOOD news today

[The Sushi Hunter]

Has Sandusky offed himself/been killed yet? I need some GOOD news today

I'm sure he'll be housed in the safest part of the prison, but unsure if that still will prevent him from becoming a wide receiver.

[ebake02]

Has Sandusky offed himself/been killed yet? I need some GOOD news today

Unfortunately he's still alive.

[Liam]

I bet he gets shanked before raped.

[ebake02]

I bet he gets shanked before raped.

Wait until he takes that first group prison shower.

[The Sushi Hunter]

What gets me is, do these people who are involved in this type of shit ever think that it's never going to crop up on them someday? Do they think that it's just going to go away forever? When the sodomite did his deeds and when the rest of the clan covered it up, did they simply think that the kids would soon forget about what happened to them and go away forever? Amazing!

[Don]

Suspending the football program for two years only punishes the current players for something they had NOTHING to do with. It's like punishing your kid for something their friend did 10 years ago.

That is how the system has always worked. Most of the players at USC the past two years weren't even in High School when Reggie Bush's parent accepted free housing yet they too suffered because of past discretions by persons no longer associated with the program.
The rules can't be softened because the school's name is Penn State. If anything there will probably be new, harsher rules put into place by the NCAA because of this incident. They'll in all likelyhood be known as the 'Penn State' rules, forever associating the college with this type of scandal.

[ebake02]

I don't give a rat's ass what ESPN says. They're on the same level as Fox News, garbage journalism at it's worst.