How can you run when you know?

Well, I had thought I said enough about the Paterno mess when I hit the hay Wednesday evening.  The old coach had been fired, along with the president of the college.  Sorry, but that's the way it has to be when you're in charge.  You have to make sure that you have people in place to do the job correctly, and this man, like most other bigtime college administrators, saw the gridiron glory of Saturday afternoons more than he saw the Wednesday evening agony of a little boy, forced to perform sex acts in the football building shower area.  Mr Paterno and Graham Spanier, the college president, either knew more than they reported to the law or should have known more.  

I remember clearly the story my dad told about his Navy days.  The captain of his ship had been punished severely because the ship had run aground one night while the captain slept.  Some junior officer was in charge at the time, and the captain was held liable because he should have made sure that the junior officer was capable of piloting the ship correctly.  

The ship of decency at Penn State ran aground and now its captain has walked the plank.

And then!  to wake up and find that today's youth - Generation i-Pad - found it necessary to overturn cars and news vans, set fires, topple lampposts and generally run around acting like galoots was disappointing.  46 years ago, when Paterno first took the reins at Penn State, students across America were demonstrating their outrage over an immoral, obscene war. 

Today, students can't get too worked up over society's ills, but let a football coach get the ax because he countenanced the rape of little boys by failing to delve more deeply into the matter than mentioning it to some functionary in the next office, and they'll burn down the town.  

Kids, I ask you, what if that were your little brother or cousin in the shower with that creep Sandusky?  Would the status of the man who didn't care enough about it, once he knew about it, matter to you?