Gary Percesepe, a minister, shouldn’t be able to make these connections, but he does.
I’ve been sick with the flu for two days. Then I got sicker.
For several days I had been able to avoid looking at the news, all the social media pointing in the same direction, about this guy at Penn State, a football coach, who was doing what? To who?
When I heard about the tragedy at Penn State (let’s face it, that’s what it is), I took in as little as possible of the details. As a minister, I get lots of bad news every day without looking for it. I walk with people to places where they would rather not go.
A phone rings. It’s cancer. Someone got evicted. Someone else needs rent money, food, cannot pay the utility bill. No heat in the apartment, what about the children? No groceries. Who is up, who is down. The woman who gets a regular beating from her husband. Or maybe it’s a heart attack, friend dead at 41. Plan the funeral, do the funeral, next day hear the surviving partner tell how he had discovered evidence of his dead partner’s infidelity, the red-letter-A emails there for me to see, pictures, phone records, you name it. Evidence. Things that are sick, sick, sick.
Another day, another heartbreaking loss. You learn not to take it on. Boundaries. What I do is walk with people. I do what I can. Through the valley of the shadow of death. It’s not about you, it is about helping them, doing what you can. I accompany the living, and the dead, all the way to the grave.
Here’s the thing about social media. You can be going along, minding your own business, and someone will tweet something, and suddenly you are sick. You do not know this person, this football coach. Sandusky? Never heard of him. Paterno? Sure, you’ve heard of him; you have a friend who taught in the philosophy program there. You are aware of the legend, the Happy Valley, the clean program.
So someone tweeted Maureen Dowd from The New York Times, and along with millions of other readers, I got to read this:
Paterno was told about it the day after it happened by Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant coach who testified that he went into the locker room one Friday night and heard rhythmic slapping noises. He looked into the showers and saw a naked boy about 10 years old “with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky,” according to the grand jury report.
I got sick again, all over the walls of the bathroom.
♦◊♦
But here’s the thing you learn as a minister: It is not about you. It is not about how sick you may feel, about how you feel depressed, as a Penn State alum or fan or faculty member, or embarrassed, or even ashamed. Those may be appropriate responses to the news, even necessary responses, but they are not sufficient.
So what is this about?
It is about a social system that has itself become sick—in this case, college football, where profits are elevated above people, where an institution or a coach’s reputation is deemed more important, more worthy of protection, than our children.
It is about what a Catholic social activist called “this dirty, filthy, rotten system.”
The children and young adults (we still do not know how many) were victimized first by a football coach, then by those who enabled him: coaches, police, administrators, a judicial system, a faculty, a staff, a university, a state, a nation. The victims were failed by the adults in their lives, not once, but twice.
But it is also about college football at the highest level—another male-dominated, insular culture, awash in television money, without accountability.
It is about the dangers of making a game into a religion. One that now has its own version of a clergy scandal.
♦◊♦
The GMP on Penn State:
We Are?
Paterno and Pedestals, Julie Gillis
Male Lust Arrives in Happy Valley, Tom Matlack
Destroying a Young Boy’s Soul, Ken Solin
Power Is at the Core of Sexual Harassment, Mervyn Kaufman
The Tragic Lionization of Joe Paterno, Tom Ley
Men, Monsters, and the Media, Nicole Johnson
Loyalty and Responsibility at Penn State, Andrew Smiler
Jerry Sandusky and Penn State: A Familiar Story, Sophia Sadinsky
Beware the Legacy You Are Protecting: Winning Isn’t Everything, Eli Kaplan
Institutional Injustice: Why Rooting For Universities Breeds Immorality, Aaron Gordon
I Failed, Rick Morris
Sandusky-ed, Tim Green
♦◊♦
—Photo Caitlinator/Flickr
So ashamed of those protesting PSU students. And things are about to get worse. Sandusky is now rumored to have pimped boys out to big donors, and in his personal life, he adopted 5 children and fostered others. The nightmare grows. The “worship” must end.
Lori:
Amen.
It is unimaginable (an symptomatic of the problem we are diagnosing here) that the Penn State community has rallied around the coach-as-victim, rather than the young people who were abused. Let’s hope that changes soon.
Gary, did you see the new interim president’s recently released statement? I’ve had a long career working in schools and colleges, and I’ve seen plenty of scandals (though nothing quite like this), and I have to say, the statement was one of the most honest, forthright, and poignant letters I’ve ever seen in these circumstances. Let’s hope that there is extremely solid, moral leadership moving forward, because there is no room for error.
actually,,,whereas the students protesting in support of paterno was disturbing, penn state has almost 50,000 students (plus faculty, staff, etc, etc,,,) and in none of the protests did i see any numbers even approaching that. what i saw were hundreds, maybe a little more making a lot of noise and doing more damage. we really dont know how the bulk of the student body, et al really feels. its easy to assume that the cameras went with the protesting and violence (if it bleeds , it leads) creating the impression that these feelings were more unanimous than it might be.… Read more »
Great piece Gary. I do agree throwing up over this is not about us individually. But what about collectively? Is there nothing that can be learned from this episode, or is it all just a waste and a tragedy?
Penn State did the right thing in firing Paterno and the president. Now they need to cancel the rest of the football season this year.
Next: Launch a complete investigation, and not an “internal” one–but one with credibility, from outside the university. Follow all recommendations. Finally, create an endowment with football money, dedicated to educating the public about citizen responsibility in preventing, policing, and reporting abuse of children.
What good does canceling the rest of the season do? All that does is punish a bunch of people who had nothing to do with this situation. I’ve heard this mentioned other places but I haven’t seen anyone discuss what this actually is supposed to accomplish.
The federal government has already started investigating Penn State too.
That said, I did think the article was good. I come from SEC country where everything is taken to another level, and I’ll admit to taking it a little too seriously myself.
Thanks for your comment. I just feel that by cancelling the rest of this season’s games, the university would be acknowledging that these events HAVE touched everyone in the community, responsibility is shared—AND, each game that is not played becomes a time to reflect, again, on the seriousness of what has happened, and what appropriate responses might be–
Vigils for victims could replace football for fans of justice & fairness & compassion, and citizens doing the right thing.
I have to disagree here. The players would be punished for something they had no part in if the season was canceled. With the riots that have broken out on campus, I could see canceling the game this Saturday for safety reasons, but that’s the only reason that really makes sense to me.
no, i agree with rebel here. the players aren’t at fault, especially the current roster. An assistant can be promoted or a new coach hired (who wouldnt want that gig even with the current scandal?) and life can go on,,, and it should go on for those who were in no way culpable here.
the FBI is now involved as are other investigative bodies. allow them to do their work and bring justice. but punishing the players, students and fans in this way is something i see no benefit in.
i thought your article made some great points. but i need to disagree with you on one. You call this a “tradgedy” then insist in parenthesis that it is…. it’s not. well, it may be, but more importantly and 1st and foremost, it’s a crime. this is criminal activity, not tragic. i personally got “sick” everytime i heard the catholic church refer to it’s own molestation / child rape epidemic as a “tragedy” or a “sin” when, like this, it was a crime. and we need to call it out as such, unapologeticly. it’s not only a crime, but amongst… Read more »
I agree – for me, the use of the word “Tragic” is not appropriate. There has been tragedy and loss, but that is not owned by PSU. We use words to express what is in our minds and how we view the world. Some even hear words and don’t recognize their meaning – they simply don’t penetrate consciousness. In the same way, silence is not considered when it is used to communicate an issue very clearly. Beaver Stadium has a reported capacity of 106,572. That means that an estimated 15,000 people attending Saturday will have been subject to sexual abuse… Read more »
“It is about a social system that has itself become sick—in this case, college football, where profits are elevated above people, where an institution or a coach’s reputation is deemed more important, more worthy of protection, than our children”
Or Hollywood. Or corporations that have factories in countries that don’t protect workers. Profits at all costs.
Bingo. It’s the enabling and aligning-with-power at all costs that goes on in all corporate structures, or systems that operate like corporations — from politics, to the church, to college sports.