<p>I suppose that you are right. It’s just so upsetting to read about the opinions of some of the players and others who still don’t get it and insist on continuing to see Paterno as the icon that he once was thought to be.</p>
<p>It has been said many times on this thread but, again, if one of those boys was the son of these delusional people, they would be singing a different tune right now.</p>
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<p>I have a different take. I think the Board has NO intention of taking that statue down, ever. It knows the fury it would face from many students and alums. So it hopes that if it “ponders” long enough, the media spotlight will move on and the rest of us will forget. </p>
<p>Cowards. Despicable, disgusting, spineless cowards. With a Board so craven, it’s no wonder JoePa was able to run amok for so long.</p>
<p>Seriously. The findings of the investigation came out less than 48 hrs ago. They were already criticiized for moving too quickly and making decisions based on the media frenzy.</p>
<p>They will do what’s right. They need to take the time and do things correctly not Half baked like they have been doing.</p>
<p>I would guess the statue will be down before school,starts.</p>
<p>I hope this AP story was not already posted.</p>
<p>[AP</a> News: Column: NCAA must act: Gut Penn State football](<a href=“http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=JS9Seu6R]AP”>http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=JS9Seu6R)</p>
<p>I think the lawsuits will bring so much additional attention that the university will have no choice but to remove Paterno’s name form anything that honors him. Heck, perhaps it will be a condition of the lawsuits.</p>
<p>I think like LasMa that they will keep the statue, and are waiting and hoping for the intensity of the spotlight to move away from them so they can get away with that. I suspect like Wall St did not change their practices and won’t, we won’t see PSU make significant changes unless forced to. I think it is more complex for those close to PSU, but I think if they aren’t making definitive decisions now, they are only going to seal over the realities and move toward, “Paterno did a lot of good and made some mistakes”. Too much cognitive dissonance for them to actually make a bigger shift. I think the BOT already told us, honoring Paterno is a sensitive issue…that’s what they think.</p>
<p>sax, what’s so difficult to decide about the statue? So Paterno won a bunch of games. Paterno also destroyed the lives of children. The second fact obliterates the first. Obliterates it. Demolishes it, destroys it, blows it out of the water. Those two facts cannot even be talked about as if they were on the same moral plane. This was a selfish, callous, narcissistic man who empowered a monster in order to protect his career. In what universe is it still acceptable to glorify him?</p>
<p>I can understand why the Board feels this is a “sensitive” issue. That’s code for “We’re terrified of the Penn State community’s reaction.” Either that or they are every bit as soul-less and callous as Paterno and his cabal. But one thing is for sure: Penn State is once again demonstrating that they Still. Don’t. Get It.</p>
<p>ETA – MDMom, I saw that column too. At almost the same time, ESPN posted this:</p>
<p>“Penn State Should Not Play Football”
<a href=“http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8163189/penn-state-cannot-allowed-football-team[/url]”>http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8163189/penn-state-cannot-allowed-football-team</a></p>
<p>just read this article about the trustees’ position on the statue; their position echoes what my gut told me. They do not get it.</p>
<p>"But privately, Peetz, board member Ken Frazier and most of the other trustees, whose leadership on the Sandusky matter as a whole was harshly criticized by the Freeh report, spoke adamantly about the need to keep the statue standing, the sources told “Outside the Lines.” They said they hoped the passage of time would prove to be an ally, sources said.</p>
<p>The trustees “are hoping they can have more time pass and people will forget about it and then it won’t come down,” one trustee said."
[Joe</a> Paterno’s statue to remain at Penn State, sources say - ESPN](<a href=“http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8166643/joe-paterno-statue-remain-penn-state-sources-say]Joe”>Joe Paterno's statue to remain at Penn State, sources say - ESPN)</p>
<p>does PSU have statues of any professors? or deans of students? just wondering</p>
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<p>Sickening. Football is still king at Penn State, even at the Board level, even after all this. They have been in thrall to the program for so long that they simply can’t envision existing without it. It cannot be reformed, not when even the Board of Trustees is STILL so clueless. It has to go.</p>
<p>Asked Friday if the university planned to try recover money from the Paterno estate, trustees chairwoman Karen Peetz said, “Contracts are contracts, and no, there’s no plan to do that.”</p>
<p>did anyone see her speak the other day? she had the cheeriest of speaking styles, seemed if she smiled and congratulated all her hardworking peers enough, they could really all believe that everything would really just go back to normal. fascinating to watch the psychology of these “leaders”</p>
<p>“Saint” Joe’s halo painted over on Penn State mural (Photos)</p>
<p>[Artist</a> paints over Paterno’s halo on Pa. mural - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/artist-paints-over-paternos-halo-pa-mural-025339629--spt.html]Artist”>http://news.yahoo.com/artist-paints-over-paternos-halo-pa-mural-025339629--spt.html)</p>
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<p>You will never see Woody Hayes or Jim Tressel with a halo painted anywhere in Columbus throughout their tenure at tOSU!! And as much as they were revered amongst the fans, students and alumni of the school prior to their bitter ends, there were absolutely no student protest / riot when they were fired by the school President, respectively on both occasions.</p>
<p>Woody Hayes lost his cool and punched a Clemson player on the field which ended his career as tOSU head football coach. Indeed, that was his huge personal flaw in my book - a horrible display of anger mismanagement. Still, any attempt to compare Joe Paterno with Woody Hayes’s integrity and character is an outrage to say the least!! </p>
<p>Woody Hayes was nicknamed: “General Patton” in disguise to the players and coaches!!! Prior to accepting the position as tOSU’s head football coach, Hayes was a no nonsense, highly respected “** Commander in the U.S. Navy**” who had fought numerous battles throughout WWII, and known to always put others before himself.</p>
<p>“One time he was in the shopping center in Upper Arlington, and this man came up to him and told him how much he and his wife loved the Buckeyes and how he just wanted to shake his hand. ‘Well, where is your wife?’ Woody asked him. The man told him she was dying of cancer at Riverside Hospital. That evening, that man went to see his wife, and Woody was already sitting by her bedside. There are hundreds of stories like that. Woody used to just walk the halls at all of the hospitals and drop in to cheer people up – people he didn’t know.” - Rex Kern, from the book “What It Means to Be a Buckeye”</p>
<p>Had Woody Hayes instead of Mike Mcqueary was in that locker room the day when the heinous child rape was spotted, I can almost guarantee you that Sandusky would not have lived to see the sunrise the next day. Knowing Woody’s character, he would have ‘taken care’ of him right there on the spot!!</p>
<p>You just hear it in everything the PSU community says, the undertone of, “JoePa was really a good guy. He wasn’t as bad as the media is making him out to be. He told his superiors what he was supposed to tell them. This was not his fault. HE did not abuse kids, he did what he was supposed to do. Should he have done more? Sure, he even admitted that. But he really didn’t do anything wrong.”</p>
<p>It’s interesting that the board won’t let the media spur them into hasty decisions, but they’ll let the students who rioted spur them to inaction.</p>
<p>"You just hear it in everything the PSU community says, the undertone of, “JoePa was really a good guy. He wasn’t as bad as the media is making him out to be. He told his superiors what he was supposed to tell them. This was not his fault. HE did not abuse kids, he did what he was supposed to do. Should he have done more? Sure, he even admitted that. But he really didn’t do anything wrong.”</p>
<p>You hit the nail on the head…everyone I know who is an alum and or has a child studying there has that exact attitude !</p>
<p>yikes …</p>
<p>I posted this on the thread about "Is it a good idea to go to PSU …</p>
<p>As a parent if one of my kids was considering Penn State I’d give them a guarded OK. As stated above I am not worried about their job prospects. I’m also not worried about the academics … well, I have some worries here due to the violations of the Cleary ast; but even here I can’t imagine the penalties would cripple PSU; that would be self-defeating. However …</p>
<p>The one thing I am concerned about is the school’s response to the crisis … it the school continues to circle the wagons, doesn’t want the football team touched, takes the position that Paterno was a great man who made a big mistake … then that would give me pause about my kid going there. The culture are the school appears to be a prime cause to one horrific situation … and if that culture lives on it would give me pause. And frankly so far if anything the school’s response has heightened those worries. Here’s a new report on the trustees deciding the statue must stay for now with many trustees being adamant it should stay forever … Joe Paterno’s statue to remain at Penn State, sources say - ESPN.</p>
<p>Say what? For me this is pretty easy … if it was my child or grandchild who was raped how do I view PSU’s actions in response … and so far they are not coming close to getting a good grade (naming the commission = A+ … virtually everything else not so much).</p>
<p>If my child was headed for PSU this coming fall I’d be stuck since I do not really have time to see how things play out. For kids younger there will be plenty of time to judge … and PSU has some work to do to get an positive recommendation from me to one of my kids.</p>
<p>(PS - I am not an alum but I did apply to PSU instead of my state school back in the dark ages when I applied as an undergrad). </p>
<hr>
<p>I think it is interesting and relevant the prison populations treat child molesters as the lowest form of life … maybe there is something to that.</p>
<p>If I was the ruler of the universe what would I do in this situation … I would hammer everyone involved. </p>
<p>If I was the DA …
<p>If I were the Feds
<p>If I were the NCAA
<p>And how is PSU responding … not with outrage but trying to manage and balance the public response of the general public versus the alums. Trustees, this is really that hard … if these were your children and grandchildren raped how would you respond? Can one of the trustees say honestly say the answer would be the same way you have so far?</p>
<p>(3togo – I feel like your stalker ;)</p>
<p>Lje62: I don’t think those “he was a good guy” remarks are necessarily all defense. I think many of those comments are prefaced by “I don’t understand how he could do this. He was a good guy”. It’s an attempt to reconcile what people thought they knew with what they do know. You see it when there are shootings, etc…the neighbor on the evening news saying “He was a nice, quiet man. We didn’t know he had 37 bodies in the basement. He seemed so nice”. It’s only been a few days since the roof fell in, and all illusions of “it wasn’t a plan to cover it up” are gone.</p>
<p>I have TWO children studying there, and scores of friends’ children. Not all of us have pockets deep enough to sit on a high horse, and I also believe there is no systemic nefarious, classroom evil. As I’ve posted elsewhere, there’s a lot of lesson for my students to learn in all this. I like that better than a smug sense of superiority. Which is part of what got PSU here. </p>
<p>These adminstrators are bad men. There is no “legacy” to protect. They should go to jail. Joe would have if he had lived. The statue should come down as soon as practical. The NCAA should vacate the wins and PSU should donate their profits from football. So now you know someone with a child there who does think more in line with yourself.</p>
<p>If Penn State does not adequately address this ON THEIR OWN, it will be more evidence that Penn State football is deemed by the school as too big to fail and nothing will have changed.</p>
<p>Should the statue of JoePa be kept around?–well. . . there is a precedent–a very similar statue exists in Springfield, Connecticut to remind of us all of the corruption that is the inevitable result of absolute power:</p>
<p>“and today the great Yertle, that marvelous he, is King of the Mud, that is all he can see. . .”
[Yertle</a> the Turtle - Springfield, MA - Famous Fictional Figures on Waymarking.com](<a href=“Yertle the Turtle - Springfield, MA - Famous Fictional Figures on Waymarking.com”>Yertle the Turtle - Springfield, MA - Famous Fictional Figures on Waymarking.com)</p>
<p>It will be interesting to watch how the NCAA squanders its tiny little bit of moral authority by punishing CalTech but not Penn State. Note also that CalTech chose to punish itself while so far we’ve heard nothing from Penn State.</p>
<p>Well, they’re gutting out the showers where Sandusky brought little boys. I guess you can’t shower there without thinking about it.</p>
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<p>Springfield, Massachusetts</p>
<p>The Penn State Community just found out with NO DOUBT that these men lied and allowed this treachery 3 DAYS ago.</p>
<p>When the grand jury report came out they reacted too quickly and they were somehow able to make things even worse. So I get that they are trying to be cautious here.</p>
<p>I believe that Sometime in the next two weeks the board will reconvene and will have no choice but to take down the statue and if legally allowed to they will opt not to play football this year. After this year the NCAA will have had time to determine PSU’s football future.</p>
<p>I just don’t see any other realistic options.</p>