By John Galt
November 10, 2011 – 05:30 ET
While many a sports writer and commentator will beat their chest and proclaim that Penn State finally did the right thing for the first time, the lesson of what has just occurred on that college campus was taught once before in 1992 and forgotten by the American public until it exploded again in 1998.
Character matters.
In 1992 a young governor from Arkansas decided to run for President. The mainstream media ignored reports of marital infidelity and reports of possible sexual assaults on women in his past because he was a rising star in politics; the politics that the Democratic Party desperately needed after three terms of Republican domination of the Executive Branch. Penn State University enjoyed the fruits of head football coach Joe Paterno who was a money making machine for the school and thus almost untouchable after building a personal empire on campus. Ironically enough, in 1998 the same year the Lewinsky scandal erupted, reports of sexual assault by his defensive coordinator Joe Sandusky were basically brushed aside by the University and apparently coach Paterno.
But it was just sex.
Sadly, in the case at Penn State, the sex was not consensual, not even between two adults. Children’s lives were destroyed and adults used their authority to cover up actions of a monster. In the end, the head football coach and all those involved were fired or forced to resign because they were caught up in the cover up whether they participated in it or not. There has been no direct implication of Paterno’s involvement in the cover up to date, but the moral failing which happened when a poor boy was assaulted in 2002 should have left a mark on his conscience forever and shocked the students on campus. Instead, on Tuesday night he said he would pray for the victims and wished he had done more.
It does depend on what your definition of the word “is” is.
In 1998 the moral corruption of the most powerful position in the world was completed with the impeachment of President Clinton but a moral failing by one of the most corrupt institutions in our country, the U.S. Senate, failed to convict him in the face of overwhelming evidence. According to the Senators who voted “not guilty” the definition of the word “is” is that America cold not afford to lose it’s President over such a moral failure.
After all, it was just a lie about sex.
Overnight Penn State University students went on a rampage about the news. They flipped over a television truck. They broke windows. They yelled obscenities and cursed at reporters covering the firing. On Wall Street and at “Occupy” protests around the country, interestingly enough as most of them were fervent Clinton supporters, the college students have engaged in all sorts of criminal activities including breaking windows, cursing at reporters, and only God knows what other disgusting activities.
But this doesn’t matter because the cause is more important than a few bad apples.
President Clinton’s legacy is now tied to Joe Paterno’s. Character does matter but apparently not to football crazed fans or young people who supported individuals like Bill Clinton. The corruption of America’s moral center was on display in Happy Valley and in Washington, D.C. yet the outrage about both cases will do what it always does: die down and disappear into the back pages of history.
The tragedy is not just the victims of a monster at Penn State University, but the victims of the destruction of America’s soul accelerated by the 1990′s with the decision that power is more important than possessing a just and moral character. The victims of our political elites are the same however, as the children have to live in this nation based on this rudderless ship lacking a moral compass, and that is the lesson most people will ignore.
Pray for all our children, they will need it.
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