Letter to the Editor: Penn State Rioters Should Be Ashamed

On Wednesday night, the Board of Trustees at Pennsylvania State University fired head football coach Joe Paterno and school president Graham Spanier. Many outraged students immediately took to the streets to show their displeasure with the Board’s decision, resulting in a night of chaos and destruction. The following is a memo to those who took part in the riots:

To anyone who destroyed property at Penn State last night:you should be ashamed. You confused disbelief with anger in a vein attempt to show support for your idol. To attempt to justify your actions with claims of "Penn State pride" or to shout, "Joe can't go" is both ignorant and disrespectful.

It is understandable to be in a state of shock about the situation. Joe Paterno has done an incredible amount of good things for Penn State, perhaps more than any other individual in the school's history.

However, in no way is Paterno the "scapegoat" in this situation. Good people don't always do the right thing. The real scapegoating going on is being done by the blind followers and supporters of Paterno, who refuse to accept the fact the Paterno was culpable, and are looking for more culpable people to blame.

Statements such as, "How can they fire Paterno when they didn't fire McQueary?" and "How come the media is focusing on Paterno and not Sandusky, Curley, and Shultz?" just prove this sentiment.

There are clearly people at the university who deserve more blame than Paterno for the cover-up, but can someone please explain to me how this makes JoePa innocent? Also, is the media's misrepresentation of the situation at all surprising to you?

Please understand that there are a significant amount of students who commend the actions taken by the Board of Trustees, and have faith that they had enough information to make their decisions.

I can express "school pride" in knowing that my school is going to take the necessary actions to correct previous mistakes and has some semblance of a moral backbone.

However, to those of you chanting "one more game" and tearing down light poles last night [Nov. 9], I'm glad you found a way to show the nation the things you want to take pride in about your school: placing meaningless milestones above the wellbeing of children, the desire to associate yourself with a legend rather than admit mistakes, and most of all the idea that morals can be ignored as long as you've met your legal obligations.

Joe Rufo

Marple Township Native

Penn State Student, Class of 2014