Some random thoughts on the Penn State child rape scandal:
- This was a major failure of the institution's culture. That is, the institution had a culture wherein child rape was an acceptable cost of doing business in order to achieve football success.
- While several individuals (Spanier, Paterno, a few more) were held accountable by losing their jobs, and another was held accountable by losing his easy access to victims (Jerry the four-decade rapist), the institution that benefited (this includes both the football program, and the university at large) from a decades-long culture of child rape has hardly been held accountable at all.
- Remember, this is an institution of higher learning that prioritized Jerry Sandusky's twisted hunger for something over the safety of hundreds of children entrusted to the school and its facilities. The school chose publicity and cash money over the safety of children.
- In a properly functioning institution, McQueary's revelations would have stopped it immediately. Penn State was not a properly functioning institution.
- Spotlight is a wonderful film, and should be mandatory viewing for Penn State faculty members and incoming freshmen.
- Seriously, this is probably the most awful thing I can think of at a major university. And it happened because football is really important. It's a great American failure.
- The global standing of the university has been built on many things, the most significant of which is the publicity and cash and donations that have come to it as a result of its football program. That football program was built on many things, but one of the most important things was a coach who was allowed to use his affiliation with the school and his own cunning to lure and rape children for four decades. A few lost scholarships and rescinded fines are a case where the punishment has been far less severe than the crime.
- Penn State fans who deny any of the above are delusional.
- If I were a Penn State alum, I would probably still be a fan. I like Kerry and Ki-Jana and Kyle and all those dudes. But I hope that I wouldn't be delusional.
- The university - not just the football program - has not paid. The university - not just the football program - should lose federal and state funding for having allowed this.
- James Franklin didn't cause this. But he's a coward and will continue to lose to Pat Fitzgerald.
- I wish Penn State were no longer in the Big Ten, even though I enjoy the guaranteed win when they're on the schedule.
- Pitt fans seem nice, though I guess the ACC makes it tough for them to join us as a replacement.