We so deperately need voices like those of Rehka Basu's, whose eye unerringly spots what should be and whose keyboard relentlessly types the misdirectedness of what is -- Good God in Heaven Above, we must protect the children among us, ALL the children of the earth from those who would prey upon them; we must further put away forever those who would sexually abuse our children, for they are evil, and beyond words -- on par with the worst of all the war criminals of the world. Grant us this courage, Heavenly Father, to call evil by its name and to NEVER excuse those empowered to STOP the predators, but who choose to look the other way, in order to "protect" the alleged sanctity of their image and the self-images of the institutions who permit crimes against children to go not merely unremarked, but to continue. God we know that you condemn those (sick indeed they may be, but evil, most assuredly they are). Grant us the courage, Lord, to do the right thing. It is SO simple to do so at the earliest detection, and so much more difficult the longer the crimes are permitted to continue. Give us just this much humanity, dear Lord, if nothing more, we ask, if it be Thy will. AMEN.
On Wednesday, students at Penn State rioted over the firing of their head football coach, who had failed to call police after a graduate assistant reported seeing a former coach, Jerry Sandusky, rape a child in the football locker room.
They ought to have threatened him for doing as little as he did, which was NOTHING to stop the rape of a young boy by an older, bigger, facsimile of a human creature.
Mike McQueary, the one who reported that assault, has received numerous death threats. On Friday, he was placed on indefinite administrative leave by the school.
If I’m misinterpreting, someone please explain, because it looks like these angry mobs aren’t protesting the abuse of children but rather, which man took the fall for it. It looks like they want to vilify the whistleblower who told Joe Paterno and the grand jury what he saw.
Whistle blowers are invariably and inevitably vilified. It is stunning that there are any, but such people are made of inherently strong moral stuffings.
Please let me be wrong in thinking the rioters would rather sacrifice children than tamper with a coach who led a team to victories. Tell me that rioting was misreported, that it was actually driven by outrage over a pedophile former coach who preyed on children, some as young as 7, over 15 years, and a conspiracy of silence.
Have those rioters read the grand jury indictment of Sandusky? They should. It makes you sick to your stomach. It paints a picture of a man who had set up a charity just to lure underprivileged boys into his lair to abuse them.
If true, Sandusky pursued eight boys with gifts, attention and special game access; he had them sleep over at his house and crawled into bed with them at night; he groped them in showers and cars, a sauna and hotel room; and he raped them.
But university higher-ups refused to call it that, sanitizing what happened in their accounts to other officials, the report says. Calling McQueary very credible, the indictment says after he allegedly saw a 10-year being penetrated from the rear by Sandusky in a locker room shower in 2002, he told Paterno.
But by the time the account had made it from Paterno to the athletic director, a vice president, president and the director of the Second Mile charity where the boys came from, the story was reduced to some vague account of something inappropriate — even though Vice President Gary Schultz knew child welfare officials had investigated Sandusky in 1998 for taking showers with boys.
Had Schultz or Paterno, or any official gone to police or child protection officers in 2002, at least one more victim could have been spared. Instead, they apparently helped cover up for Sandusky. Instead of going to jail, he was told not to bring young boys onto campus.
True, McQueary could have gone to police himself, but he was a student and Paterno was the head coach.
An 8-year-old Iowa girl apparently has a more developed sense of moral responsibility than the brass at Penn State.
Last week, it was reported that a child of that age visiting a relative at a Pomeroy nursing home witnessed an elderly woman being assaulted sexually by a male resident and told nursing home administrators and criminal investigators about it.
That man, incidentally, is on the sex offender registry for four convictions, yet an Iowa judge had inexplicably ordered him to live in the nursing home.
But Penn State had all the evidence it needed.
Officials at Iowa’s public universities have, in the past, failed to respond adequately to sexual assault reports. Some protocols have been changed.
But when are we going to change the culture from the top so that standing up for victims is always considered more important than protecting good ole boys’ reputations or the reputation of a school?
At a news conference, Paterno’s replacement got teary discussing how much Paterno has meant to him. I just wished he had shed a single tear for the children.
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