The McQuearing of America
Yes, yes, curse the defensive genius and pedophile* Jerry Sandusky (author of Touched) and Coach Joe Pa (who continued to employ him). But what about the grad assistant who happened to lock eyes with ol' Sandusky when the latter was sodomizing a ten-year-old boy in the Happy Valley showers of Penn State? According to the grand jury report, the GA (elsewhere identified as Mike McQueary**) nobly ran away tittering and called his daddy, before telling Coach Paterno the next day at his home.
I don't care how sacred the football program is or what you expect in terms of a future job: If you see a boy being molested, you immediately stop the proceedings, using violence if/because necessary. That there isn't more of a public outcry against McQueary speaks volumes about the death of masculinity in America.
*alleged
**current assistant football coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions
Entries(RSS)
Curse them all. I have previously thought the world of Joe Pa, and I didn't realize that a current PSU coach witnessed this heinous crime, and ran away. I believe that Football can be a great blessing in the lives of those who love and play the game, but it obviously isn't always.
Right on the money, Mr. Wolf, or its it Dr. Wolf, forgive me. The death of masculinity, now there's
a subject for a book.
Patrick, I'm a mere mister. Football is supposed to be about inculcating the virtues of courage, endurance, loyalty. The insular PSU program utterly failed with Mr. McQueary.
John, I agree. Did you see the big piece in SI a month or so ago about the development of the NCAA? Very telling.
Hard to imagining this happening in Div III. But further evidence of the demasculinazation of American society vis-a-vis football can be found in the sacking of Hank Williams, Jr., from Monday Night Football.
Joe Paterno lost all my respect when he allowed black quarterblack Rashard Casey to continue playing after attacking a white cop who was at a bar with a black woman. Paterno sold his soul a long time ago.
I'm no football fan, but you couldn't be righter, Matthew. Dropping Hank 2's great song is flat-out onnnn-conscionable!
(I'm so not a football follower that I hadn't known of Sandusky's and McQueary's despicable behavior, or of either of them, really. I rather wish I didn't now.)
Thanks, Ray. Confession time: I didn't know that was Hank Williams singing (being able to match the man with the voice, that is) till I saw the music video of his duet with Waylon Jennings, called "The Conversation," which is available on YouTube. In fact, I enjoyed watching that duet more than any pro football game (Div I football being pretty much the same thing). Maybe because I enjoy sporting around myself, versus shouting at the TV from the comfort of my sofa, I've never been dazzled by the modern pro-sport, celebrity-athlete-cum-god phenemenon which Thomas Fleming rained upon in a "Hard Right" column once available on this website. The salient section, recorded in the quote file I keep, is:
"The Roman gladiator was a slave, the lowest scum of Roman society, and though the crazy emperors like Caligula and Commodus might emulate their sports heroes, and upper-class Roman matrons might go to the barracks to get serviced, the overall opinion of gladiators and most jockeys and charioteers was very unflattering. A few jockeys died rich; most gladiators either died poor or just died—terrible, miserable, degrading deaths in front of jeering crowds that might have adored them last year. No one "respected" these poor men. After all, if a city wanted entertainment from a small-brained athlete, they could buy one. They didn't shower the beasts with lucrative contracts and endorsements."
Rather than watch the next Bears game, one should watch Anthony Quinn in "Barabbas" and imagine the meatheaded millionaires of Monday Night Football face each other in a real ring at a just wage.
Chicago-born (south side, White Sox) humorist Jean Shepherd was well aware of the gold standard name of blue collar athletes:
"Mike Kreevich, that's a name! This is a name that's made out of old red bricks. Used bricks, the kind of bricks you buy at the lumberyard. Got chunks of tar hanging on it, and old concrete; pieces of straw and other things, can't even discuss it. I remember Mike Kreevich standing out in center field, with tobacco juice squirting out of both ears. He's just standing there; he looks like a fireplug with feet."
Well, the name “Jerry Sandusky” is nearly the equal of “Mike Kreevich” in invoking “boilermaker culture,” the world of a shot-and-a-beer. If the current scandal surrounding Jerry Sandusky is contemporary America’s paradigm of sports, then is the future assured for the world’s McQuearys?
What's in a name? That which we call a boilermaker’s “rose,” by any other name, would smell as foul.
Aaron,
Thank you for calling this thing by its name. It is humorous to watch the leftist outrage over a culture they have been working to build for years. A friend of mine, Dr. Bill,has observed:
There is plenty of blame to go around.
There's the Athletic Director, a Vice President with a dubious
portfolio, the legendary coach, and the coaching staff. First I want
to deal with the President of the University. If he's fired, it's a good
thing. But it's also a bad thing. He'll be replaced by another guy, cut
in exactly the same mold. These are faceless men and women, who
handle university business. And the first thing they always look out
for is... themselves.
If you remember the Virginia Tech shooting, of just a couple of years
ago, the university President was not fired, even though his failure to
sound the alarm on campus was largely responsible for the high death
toll. After he made sure his own backside was protected, he went on
record about the integrity of the university, the procedures that were
followed, that it would never happen again...blah, blah, blah.
The fact is that Virginia Tech is still stonewalling the parents of the
kids who died about what really happened, years after the fact. The
fact is, today, that universities are not safe places to be. They routinely
refuse to cooperate with local police and will not release any statistics
about crime on campus. It isn't just Virginia Tech. Almost all colleges
and universities see themselves as a singular universe that operates
with its own special rules (much like Congress). This is why a perverted
pedophile can operate in a community for so long, without being outed.
The university is always more concerned about its privacy than following
the law.
At Penn State, the university President's first comments were to support
the Athletic Director and the Vice President with an undefined job. Nothing
at all about the victims, which started with five, but is growing by the day.
Anybody that dumb shouldn't be President of the local dog park."
The dubious outrage by the left is perplexing.Cutting an infant limb by limb from its Mother's womb is a human right, abusing the rascal 8 years later is unspeakable- -which it is but why ? It is like watching Chris Mathews piling on the Cain wreck of sexual dalliance while promoting the greatness of Jack Kennedy and Mathew's recent book about the Kennedy presidency. It would be interesting to review Penn State's class catalogue during the last twenty five years to see which classes were being offered on sexual deviancy pro and con!! It is also a real hoot to watch the trustees gather to restore order as if Tom Wolf had not outed the whited seplucher called University Life years ago in one of his pot boiler novels about the same.
If I understand rightly, a lot of Penn State fans are nonetheless shocked and outraged that Paterno has been let go, and there has even been some rioting on his behalf? I feel like I'm on crazy pills.
Mr. Slayer,
It is not you that are taking crazy pillls it is the situation itself. Heck look at this from an old WND article ten years ago:
" In February 2001, the Penn State campus group Womyn's Concerns hosted a "Sex Faire" to discuss "issues of sexual health, consensual activities and liberation." It included games such as "pin the clitoris on the vulva" and "orgasm bingo." A book table featured "Smut and Other Great Literature" and attendees were invited to a "Tent of Consent," intended to provide two students with two minutes of "consensual activity" behind a curtain after learning the criteria for legally consensual sex."
In November 2000, Womyn's Concerns and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance held an event featuring performance art, music and a reading from Inga Muscio, author of the book "C---: A Declaration of Independence."
According to the campus newspaper, the Daily Collegian, Womyn's Concerns president Michelle Yates accused opponents of trying to limit free speech and insisted that anyone who attended the event would realize it was an educational program that covered topics such as sexual assault and domestic violence.
"This was based on a piece of literature," Yates told the Collegian.
After the "Sex Faire" in February, the state's House Appropriations Committee held a hearing in which Lawless, a house member, played a five-minute video excerpted from one made at the event.
Lawless said at the hearing that Penn State should be punished for failing to be "moral" leaders. Penn State President Graham Spanier,( recognize this name ?) who was questioned by lawmakers in a four-hour session, apologized for certain components of the event but maintained that the university was committed to free speech.
When asked directly if the programs were wrong or immoral, Spanier gave a "Clinton-esque" answer, according to Lawless.
"His answer," said Lawless, "was 'It depends on what your definition of immoral is.'"
Lawless said that although only about 30 of 203 legislators have backed his stance on the Penn State events, he's received thousands of e-mails and other correspondence from supportive Pennsylvanians.
"The problem is the legislature doesn't want to come down on Penn State, the biggest school; they're worried about all of the alumni voting them out," he said. "Meantime, a significant number of alumni are contacting me, congratulating me for straightening that place up, or attempting to."
Well ten years later the place is still trying to be "straightened up "depending upon what one means by straightened up."
Yesterday, a lawyer told me that the reason McQuery is being protected and retains his job is because he has been granted immunity so he can testify against Sandusky, whose conviction hangs in the balance. No testimony, no conviction.
"Yesterday, a lawyer told me that the reason McQuery is being protected and retains his job is because he has been granted immunity so he can testify against Sandusky."
This may be true. He reported to his superiors and was not fired. Jo Paterno reported to his superior, who reported to his superior, who reported to the President of the University and they were all fired. But as Aaron said, this guy should have been "allowed to leave" when he saw a crime being committed and left the scene to go think about it. It reminds me of the woman in New York several years ago who was screaming rape as her neighbors watched from their apartment windows while passers by began to feverishly consider the age old question: exactly who is my neighbor.
Other than having read the Grand Jury Report , I know little about the facts. What has disturbed me most is watching the liberals become all self righteous and indignant about immorality they have helped promote for years. Why can't they just repeat their normal mantras," We need to become a more tolerant culture; We need to expand the circle of freedom; We are personally opposed to such behavior but do not wish to impose our morality on others, etc..When liberals like Michael Moore, Chris Mathews, Rev. Sharpton, their neo- con allies and that entire bunch rush to judgement about a news issue, or appear to be in agreement with traditional morality in condemning sinful acts, I always see dark clouds on the horizon and another painful attack brewing on what's left of our feeble traditions and the bombed out institutions once charged with defending them.
While most Chronicles readers no doubt would relish the idea of beating Sandusky's brains out after catching him in the act, it is important to understand the consequences one would likely suffer. In our society, it is not far-fetched to see the rescuer spending time in prison while the poor victim (Sandusky) went free. It is well-known that many of our elites are of his ilk.
In these situations, it is best not to rely on government to set things right. On this point it is best to be vague...