The thought I alluded to and one of the reasons I feel so sick about all this is that I can't help but feel I am connected to all this in some way. I went to school there. I fed the football frenzy. I won't say I helped create the "football is king" environment in Happy Valley but I certainly went along with it. How does anyone associated with it not feel that way, at least a little bit? I've been told I take responsibility for things that I don't have to. I get the feeling this is one of those times. I just can't help but think that all those people, all that money, all that pride, everything, just helped feed the environment that allowed this to happen. Whether I like it or not, I was a willing participant in that environment.
Now for the advice. I've been reading about the situation online in various places. I've even been reading some of the comments after some of the stories. Aside from the obvious trolls and the comments from people that don't know how to make a complete sentence, a few of them have me wondering. I wonder what people think of the current students, of the alumni, of how the situation is being handled by everyone associated with PSU but not involved in scandal. My blog, I get to go first.
The kids that rioted when Paterno was fired were wrong. Flat out wrong and they deserve the criticism they get. I hope that most of them will understand that in the not too distant future. I think the signs at the game over the weekend supporting Paterno were wrong too. Not sure if the middle aged alumni I saw holding some of them will ever understand that. I'm not for erasing his name from the history books but let's not get carried away here. Whatever he's done in the past or since 2002 when he was told about Sandusky pales in comparison with sitting back and not doing anything about it.
Now for what people are trying to do that's good. I've never been one for candlelight vigils and I think those are more for show than anything else but I appreciate the fact that there were more people at the vigil last Friday than there were rioting the Wednesday before. I'd also like to say that I have donated to RAINN under the campaign started by some PSU alums to do some good out of this. They are up to $385,000+ in about a week towards a goal of $500,000. If you can help, please do. I signed up for their emails too and the last one said that the money so far would help over 8,000 people get help. They also said they've had a flood of calls both on the victim side and the volunteer side since this started.
I'd like to think all this means that, overall, we're trying to do the right thing. We're trying to do what we can to help and we're trying to show ourselves and the world that the actions of a few don't define the many. Some of the comments I read online make me ask what else I'm supposed to do. There are calls to shut down the University (mostly from people that refer to PA as Pennsyltucky and think we're all related), there are calls to shut down the football program. I will admit the thought of sending back my diploma crossed my mind several dozen times. (I decided to reserve that as judgement on the official response by the University.) What do you all think? What is the appropriate response?
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