Penn State at Halftime

Both teams pause in a pre-game prayer for victims of sex abuse.
(TV Screenshot/Dick Bergeron)

The second quarter between the Nittany Lions and Nebraska’s Cornhuskers has just ended as I am writing this post. 

But it’s halftime for more than just a football team today.  The leadership of Penn State University, as well as that of its athletic program is also in the midst of its own halftime. 

Both are losing badly.  Maybe we should put the kids in charge. 

It’s hard to find the right words to categorize the shameless acts which are alleged to have been committed on the campus of Penn State University by people entrusted with the welfare of young people. 


It’s just as difficult to describe the disgust which wells up in me – and, I suspect, in most of us – concerning the cover-up which kept this sordid mess under wraps for so long. 

Tom Bradley listens with a look of melancholy to a reporter's question.
(TV Screenshot/Dick Bergeron) 

But it’s now out in the open, and it’s likely that more revelations will be made public as the grand jury investigation deepens, as journalists dig in, and as the legal process begins to assert itself.  

It’s déjà vu all over again.  I thought that, by now, people in positions of responsibility would have learned from the unraveling of the sexual abuse situation in Boston during the early 2000’s. 

But human nature is slow to change:  Plus Que ça change, plus que c'est la même chose.  (The more things change, the more they are the same.)

The issue of child abuse in this country seems to be pervasive and ubiquitous.  Its sordid tentacles reach out in devious ways to entrap both pre- and post-pubescent children wherever a predatory opportunity presents itself.

One of the most deadly traits of a sexual abuser is that such a person will often seek out a position of responsibility and trust where that predator’s influence over children and adolescents is least suspected. 

Today, before the football game began, both teams took to the field to dedicate several minutes to prayerful reflection for the victims.  Now, it’s time for the grownups to fix the problem.