<p>Joe Paterno showed a failure of leadership when he sought to cover up the abuse. The Freeh report found he influenced others to join in the cover up. About Paterno, Freeh says:</p>
<p>The facts are the facts, Theres a whole bunch of evidence here. And were saying that the reasonable conclusion from that evidence is he was an integral part of this active decision to conceal. I regret that based on the damage that it does, obviously, to his legacy.</p>
<p>Can anyone seriously argue the statue should stay?</p>
<p>Leave it up…Above it erect a statue of Mr. Sandusky in the shower washing a 12 year old boy’s back… Attach a caption with JoePa saying…“I’ll give you 14 years to cut that out, Jerry”</p>
<p>It was reported on 1010 WINS radio that the Penn State Board has decided that the statue will remain. The Board reasoned removing it would upset alumni and students. The statue has the following inscription:</p>
<p>“They ask me what I’d like written about me when I’m gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach.”</p>
<p>If Penn State alumni and students really feel Paterno made Penn State a better place then they deserve their reputation as an oblivious, egocentric cult. At best, Mr. Paterno failed to exhibit ethical leadership. One commentator suggested the statue remain but should show Paterno " looking the other way," as he did for decades.</p>
<p>I try to understand the perspective of PSU students/alumnae. Really, I do. It’s a terrible situation to be thrust into.</p>
<p>That being said, the fact that there were riots over JoePa being dismissed but not over the choice to keep this statue speaks volumes to me. If the wellbeing of children is more important than football, why isn’t there outrage?</p>
<p>You have to look at the timing of all of this. Joe was fired a few days after the indictment of Jerry Sandusky was announced, BEFORE the trial had begun, and BEFORE the Freeh report had begun, never mind been released. </p>
<p>There is plenty of outrage toward Jerry Sandusky for what he did, and toward Tim Curley, Graham Spanier and Gary Schultz (and Paterno) for covering it up for so long. But with regard to people defending Joe…something about this still smells fishy. The fact that the main “evidence” of Joe’s involvement is a couple of emails, none of which came from or went to him just doesn’t add up. The fact that one line of one of those email was leaked to the media a few days before the report was released, guiding everyone to a specific conclusion based one a sentence, rather than the whole 200 page report…that doesn’t add up either.</p>
<p>Add to that the idea that many people outside of Penn State revered Joe Paterno for decades because the “did things the right way” and then all of a sudden those same people (followed by the rest of the public) suddenly cast him as a super villian based on the previously mentioned emails…?</p>
<p>We aren’t trying to defend Joe for enabling a child molester, there is no defense for that. But many of us don’t think all of the facts of the situation have come to light. Everyone else seems to want to rush to judgement and based on leaked information and a (not so) independent report paid for by the one party not really being help accountable. That seems ridiculous to me.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind, Freeh being a former Judge and head of the FBI is inherently less relevent than anything uncovered during the Sandusky Trial, seeing as he doesn’t have the power of subpoena, and therefore the only information he had was what Penn State gave him, or what other people offered. Joe Paterno couldn’t offer anything…being as he had already passed away.</p>
<p>Kudos to the Board for getting it right this time and deciding not to take any hasty action regarding the statue. Who knows what the eventual resolution will be, but at least this time it won’t be a rush to judgement and a panicked response to media pressure. Hopefully the opinions of the Penn State community will count for more than the perception of the often misinformed general public.</p>
<p>@warrior1183: You make fair points. Really, what you say about the protests makes a bit of sense, even if I can’t personally relate to the sentiment. But for me, your post comes down to this: “We aren’t trying to defend Joe for enabling a child molester, there is no defense for that.” You’re right. It is indefensible – and by holding Joe Paterno up as a hero worthy of adulation with a statue and an inscription about making Penn State a better place, it certainly suggests to me that, if you don’t want to say that Joe Paterno isn’t being outright defended, he doesn’t appear to at all be condemned for his role in what happened. </p>
<p>It might be that not all the facts have come to light. In fact, I would doubt it. However, I think that keeping the statue on display is callous. I think this kind of situation will take a lot of time, especially for members of the PSU community who did admire and adulate Joe Paterno. Not only is the statue insensitive to the healing of the victims, I would think that kind of outright institutional support would be an impediment to the healing of both community and institution.</p>
<p>For me, it’s basic respect to the victims to take down the statue. Memorializing the man who allowed them to be abused for years, I think, creates the appearance that the feelings of alumni and students towards him is more important than the trauma he facilitated.</p>
<p>Exactly MissGen! Many defending Paterno state what happened is terrible BUT then deny there should be consequences at Penn State. If the statue remains, it will come to represent callousness and arrogance. The community needs to give more than lip service to the claim that they have compassion for the victims and their families.</p>
<p>If the statue remains, it may as well be Paterno’s middle finger that is up.</p>
<p>If Penn State can’t do something as simple as remove that stature then it is certainly indicative that their leadership will never do a thing to address and change the larger institutional problems that created this mess and fully detailed in the Freeh report. </p>
<p>It was not a problem of four individuals. Those individuals were allowed to do what they did (and get away with it for at least 14 years) because of significant flaws in the governance mechanisms, priorities and culture at Penn State. And it’s pretty clear from the statue decision that the board and the new President (another insider) are content to merely wait out the media storm before going back to business as usual.</p>
<p>I never thought that a Big Ten schools would be on the ban list for my child, but there is one now and for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>I agree that it should be taken down, or moved somewhere to perhaps serve as a cautionary tale and reminder to those who might feel college athletics should be anything more than a small piece of higher education’s mission. I am afraid that, in light of all the monumental missteps taken by PSU’s administration and the board, they are afraid to take any quick action.</p>
<p>1010 is CBS radio in NYC and the same story was reported in ESPN.com. Trustees were quoted as saying the statue stays at least for now.
“You can’t let people stampede you into making a rash decision,” a trustee reportedly told ESPN.com. “The statue represents the good that Joe did. It doesn’t represent the bad that he did.”</p>
<p>While the dateline is today that story harks back to the weekend ESPN report, which the university spokesperson has refuted.</p>
<p>“Contrary to various reports, neither the board of trustees nor university administration has taken a vote or made a decision regarding the Joe Paterno statue at Beaver Stadium,” La Torre said in a statement."</p>