"I get that it's probably hard to believe that this guy you think is infallible and this program you think is sacred could hide such heinous activities, but there is some precedent for that -- and just like with the Catholic Church, no one's trying to take away your religion, in this case football, they're just trying to bring some accountability to a pope and some of his cardinals who fucked up. So don't worry, on Saturday you'll still get to go to services against Nebraska; no one's gonna take that away. 'Cause obviously you're young and that would be a traumatic experience -- and we wouldn't want that memory to scar you for life."
-- Jon Stewart on the Penn State scandal and the firing of Joe Paterno
Absolutely perfect.
I went into this quite a bit on the podcast last night, but in a couple of sentences Stewart sums up exactly what's wrong with the Penn State student and alumni outcry over the "unfairness" of Joe Pa being shitcanned. It comes down to this, so pay attention, kids: Football: unimportant. Children being raped: very important. Please get your priorities straight.
Sandusky sodomized children. Paterno knew about it, it happened on his watch, and he didn't do enough to stop it and to follow up with the investigation into what were unbelievably horrific events taking place right in the middle of Happy Valley (and please spare me the song and dance about how he's being scapegoated, because he isn't). Sandusky gets arrested and Paterno gets off relatively easy by only losing his job and not being hauled in by police and put through the wringer.
As for the indignation from the Penn State faithful, let me ask a question that I already know the answer to: If you weren't personally invested in the people and institution currently under fire, if you didn't deify them -- if it was, say, Les Miles or Bo Pelini or Lou Holtz years ago at the center of this same scandal -- would you still be so willing to suspend disbelief and automatically grant an immutable benefit of the doubt? Or would you be like the rest of us not blinded by our emotional attachments -- would you be willing and able to see this travesty for what it is and be demanding accountability and justice for the victims and their families?
Of course you would. Please think about that.
You're on the wrong side of this fight -- but you wouldn't be if it were anybody but Paterno. And that makes your argument crap.
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