Will the Real Penn State Please Stand Up?

I've heard lots of snide comments about my home town and alma mater over the last several months thanks to the Jerry Sandusky case ("We are...Penn rape" - ah, yes, very classy). One of the most recent had to do with the composition of the jury, drawn from the State College area and by default having lots of ties to Penn State.

Displaying a lack of empathy akin to the one they attribute to senior administrators who apparently shielded Sandusky for years, many have openly opined that the people in and around State College are so blinded by love of Penn State football that a jury composed of locals was almost certain to acquit Sandusky because of his history with the team. Now that this jury has come back with guilty verdicts on all but a few charges, I wonder what those critics will say next. While I'd like to believe they'll rethink that initial assessment, I suspect it's more likely that many will simply double down and suggest that the fact that a few of the charges came back "not guilty" proves their warped point.

Alternatively, the storyline may become that of a jury more concerned with taking revenge on Sandusky for Joe Paterno's downfall than in justice for Sandusky's victims. On one level, of course, the jury's motives are irrelevant as long as justice has been done, but I am sick of hearing these blowhards disparage tens of thousands of people because of the sins of a few. If said blowhards are actually concerned with the truth, the story should be that a jury that many believed would be sympathetic to the defendant heard both sides of the case and concluded that the defendant was a monster. Success with honor, some might say.

We Are...Tone Deaf

As a member of the Penn State faithful, I'd be lying if I claimed I could be totally objective about the trial of Jerry Sandusky and the events that have preceded it over the past several months. Perhaps the one good thing about the trial is that it puts the focus squarely on the figure who seemed to be strangely in the background while the late Joe Paterno was being vilified, the monster who is Jerry Sandusky. In short, I'm not an advocate of blaming the masses for the sins of the few. That said, the e-mail I received from Penn State today, touting the start of a new era in Penn State football, coming on the heels of another day of harrowing testimony in the Sandusky trial makes it hard not to wonder if my alma mater isn't truly as rotten to the core as critics would suggest.

Game Over? (Not At Penn State)

As the Jerry Sandusky case shows, clearly there was a strong current of secrecy at work at Penn State. Some might be inclined to debate whether this strain of insularity in the university as an institution constituted some sort of equal and opposite reaction to the open and friendly nature of the actual residents, but that's simply a distraction from the fact this culture needs to be understood and changed to avoid future tragedies. At the same time, the rush of books on the subject, including the just released Game Over, gives me pause - and not just because I'm an alumnus.

By the authors' own accounts, Game Over was written to a very tight deadline. This all but guaranteed that its publication would precede both Jerry Sandusky's trial and the various investigations into Penn State's conduct related to the charges against him. In short, whatever the claims on the dust-jacket, it can't possibly tell the whole story.

Whatever Joe Paterno did or didn't do (let alone should have done), it's hard to deny that there was a rush to judgment to decide his fate. Like many of the Penn State faithful, what bothered me about Paterno's treatment by the university was not really his dismissal but rather the fact a man who had done so much good for Penn State and the community seemed to get less due process than an accused child molester.

Game Over seems to be riding the same wave of judgment. Even putting aside some cynical musings about what the authors intend to do with the proceeds of this insta-book, I can't shake my instinct that it will not in any way help the pursuit of justice for Sandusky's victims. I hope I'm wrong, but that's the thing about cynicism - expecting the worst seldom makes you look like a fool.