Letter to the Editor: Kudos to Louis Freeh

To the Editor:

Individuals of good will and decency are greatly in the debt of former FBI Director Louis Freeh and his team of investigators for conducting a far-reaching, extensive, detailed, and truly independent and objective investigation into the atrocities that we now know were permitted to occur and metastasize at once-great Penn State University.

The report is stunning and horrific, and it needs to be widely absorbed in the hope that atrocities which occurred on such a grand scale at Penn State will never be allowed to occur there or anywhere else again.

There are many individuals in positions of authority who are culpable for enabling Jerry Sandusky to continue for years his engagement in a one-man crime spree of monumental proportions and ramifications, but the late Coach Joe Paterno, the de facto leader of Penn State University, stands out as one whose actions, and lack of action, is particularly shameful. His credo was to regard the school's football program as a supreme, sacrosanct feature of life in "Happy Valley", and that even when there was substantive reason to believe that a high-ranking member of the coaching staff was molesting young boys, or at the very least, acting in some sort of deviate manner with them, that blinders would be worn so as not to bring disfavor or disrepute upon the school or its beloved violent sport. His utterances and wishes were regarded as the word of God, the power and authority of others usurped.

It is ironic that Coach Paterno's actions to insulate the football program from scrutiny and harm ultimately served to bring national scandal and disgrace to him and to the university and sports program that he loved and to which he devoted his entire life.

I feel sympathy for Paterno's family, which now must rise to his defense, perhaps not knowing what knowledge the Coach had about Sandusky and when he had it. I feel far greater sympathy for the young boys whose lives were needlessly savaged by a beast and those in authority who facilitated the beast's actions.

Joe Paterno shall be fondly remembered by some for his genius on the playing field, longevity in his position, and his laudable humility and modesty. He will be recalled with contempt by others who value the lives and innocence of children, particularly those whose lives were shattered by Sandusky, a wicked and sinister man who took advantage of them as a serial molester. Joe Paterno's own words regarding the Sandusky debacle have even more meaning in light of the revelations in the Freeh report, "I wish I had done more."
So do we, Coach; so do we.

Oren Spiegler
Upper St. Clair