(Blue and) White Noise

Now that the fury has dulled to a low white noise, I’d like to get this on the record.

1)      I almost feel like the expected “acceptable alumni response” has to be something akin to a religious ceremony.  By that I mean:

Leader: “The children were hurt and we don’t get it.”

Congregation (all): “And you should suffer for the sins of your leaders.”

Leader: “It was too much about football.”

Congregation (all): “PSU should just lay down and die.”

Leader: “We didn’t know, and didn’t think to ask.  We did our best, and donated to RAINN, despite always donating to THON.  We demanded true, total accountability from out Board and our President.”

Congregation (all): “You admit you were complicit in keeping a secret.”

Leader: “We are more than just football.”

Congregation (all): “You still don’t get it.”

2)      To be fair, in real life most people have been extremely respectful to me.  I have a fair-sized PSU banner in my office, and while I am not an uber-fan I certainly haven’t packed stuff away in embarrassment.  The only guy who approached annoying was more inquisitive than malicious, and I can live with that.  The nearly universal response has been supportive of PSU.

3)      I maintain my earlier position, that those complaining the loudest about the PSU scandal not being about the kids are as complicit in the cover-up as those in it.  IF they truly cared this much about the children, we’d be having, demanding!,  IN THE NEWS the tough conversations about why pedophiles can hide easily in society and working towards the answer that severely curtails molestation.  Instead, by wasting their energy pointing fingers and proselytizing, we get to hear for decades about pedophiles that are caught after they molested dozens of children.  Guess what, folks?  We have to have grown-up conversations about sex in our society that involve those under the age of 18; to do any less is to continue to repress those that need to learn the critical lessons about sex, and continue to make it unsafe for kids to speak out without shame.

4)      The NCAA is not only wrong, but hypocritical, foolish, and laughably off-base.  That PSU deserved to be punished is something I as an alum can agree with, but they are not the appropriate body to do something.  The events here arguably hurt the students before the NCAA was involved by tainting their futures, and certainly didn’t give them any competitive advantage.  The very WAACy (win at all costs) system that exists does so because the NCAA exists.  If the hypothesis is true, that PSU’s coaching staff and senior management allowed kids to be raped to not hurt the program, then we should ask why they felt the program would be hurt.   It would be illogical to think that if no repercussions came from reporting, that this would have persisted- so why hide?  NCAA has set up a system that has such a low tolerance for error that they can mandate who can receive money, in an era where universities are using sports as both a direct and indirect revenue stream.  They have evidence- when a local vendor gives kids a free pair of shoes, they are fined, players are suspended, and the program is openly humiliated.  That level of punishment-not-fitting-the-crime causes a near black market style attitude.  When you can joke and say “sure, everybody cheats-“ what exactly are they cheating?  It’s perceived they are cheating a system that is so out of touch with its charter that you’re better to hide than to voluntarily comply.  Or can you point to how all the other programs in the country have used the PSU scandal as a wakeup call, and gone public about how they rely too much on football and not enough on academics?  And I mean all, because it was an attack on the “football culture.”  The football culture will continue apace, with or without PSU.

5)      I personally don’t care about who is going to get hurt.   Of course the fans will, but again as an alum I think it’s time for a margin call on our karma bets.  You PSU fans know who you are.  You sniggered under your breath every time a program got the attention of NCAA.  You had the hubris and arrogance to puff up your chest, to say “it won’t happen to us” when something far, far worse lingered the whole time.  We allowed our honor to be perverted into pride.  We allowed our pride to be desecrated into arrogance.  And we’re allowing our loyalty to be converted to zealotry.  No, we didn’t know anything.  Yes, we would like to think we’d have done something differently had we known.  Ironically, the person who would have us really look at this aspect would have been Joe- he would have compared it to the rule of a Roman emperor, and asked you for an essay on the arrogance of absolute rule, translating the latin.  And the ultimate lesson would be that he would ask us to let him go.  Forget the media, they’ve proven themselves to be willful idiots and ESPN quislings.  If you really believe Joe was right, then let him go.  Time will prove him and it right.

6)      Penn State will not die unless they so heavily penalize the university that they will go bankrupt.  Watch the cosmic dance, though.  It happens so regularly.  First, the shock (check).  Then, the scorn (check).  Then the gossip-turned-RIMO (righteous indignation moral outrage, check).  Then the loss of sponsors (starting).  Then, the actual facts of what happened.  Then, the muted corrections by those that profited from the RIMO and mob mentality.  Then, silence. 

7)      A lesson to be learned here is important- the one that was not followed.  We said “Success with Honor.”  It’s one of the cornerstones of the house we worshiped in- and don’t fool yourself, PSU football (and many, many others) are religious organizations.  We had a dogma, a legacy, a prophet, a rite, holy days of obligation, and many, many avatars.  But regardless of what’s happened- the temple has been destroyed, in a sense- the corner stone is still good.  We are left to follow it.  We are left to enforce it on our culture.  Our honor has been besmirched, but the idea had no man- it was each of us.  We stand together and demand honor.  Our training and skill will bring us success- which by the way of the hundreds of thousands of alumni, only a very small portion actually played football, and it’s not even relevant to the end result.  Your professors give you honor.  Your friends and roommates,  organizations and clubs, greek and independent, all those that shared the experience give you honor.  And now we have something to aim for our success- and that’s passing on a wise lifestyle to others.