COWARDS!

NEWSFLASH:  Children are human beings.  Not sub-human, inferior, or less than - but genuine, passionate, living, breathing, gifts from God who deserve our guidance and protection.  At the risk of sounding cliché, our young are our future, our hope and all that is right in our broken world.

Enter: The top ranking officials at Penn State. 

According to Penn State's long-awaited internal review over how the university handled the rampant pedophilia of Jerry Sandusky (which can be read in its entirety HERE), former President Graham Spanier, former Vice President Gary Schultz, Paterno, and former athletic director Tim Curley "never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest."  

"Four of the most powerful people at The Pennsylvania State University --failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade."

FOR OVER 10 YEARS?!?!?!

 

I’m sick.  We’re all sick.

Allow me to shine a light on our world's ultimate example of COWARDICE:

On Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno:

"On Friday, February 9, 2001, University graduate assistant Michael McQueary observed Sandusky involved in sexual activity with a boy in the coach's shower room in the University's Lasch Building. McQueary met with and reported the incident to Paterno on Saturday, February 10, 2001. Paterno did not immediately report what McQueary told him, explaining that he did not want to interfere with anyone's weekend."

"Paterno told a reporter (regarding the 2001 allegations) that 'I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was. So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way.'"

"Paterno was asked, "Other than the [2001] incident that Mike McQueary reported to you, do you know in any way, through rumor, direct knowledge, or any fashion, of any other inappropriate sexual conduct by Jerry Sandusky with young boys?" Paterno responded, "I do not know of anything else that Jerry would be involved in of that nature, no. I do not know of it. You did mention -- I think you said something about a rumor. It may have been discussed in my presence, something else about somebody. I don't know. I don't remember, and I could not honestly say I heard a rumor."

Rot in hell, you son of a bitch.

On Penn State's President Graham Spanier:

"By not promptly and fully advising the Board of Trustees about the 1998 and 2001 child sexual abuse allegations against Sandusky and the subsequent Grand Jury investigation of him, Spanier failed in his duties as President. The Board also failed in its duties to oversee the President and senior University officials in 1998 and 2001 by not inquiring about important University matters and by not creating an environment where senior University officials felt accountable."

"Spanier said, in his interview with the Special Investigative Counsel, that he never heard a report from anyone that Sandusky was engaged in any sexual abuse of children. He also said that if he had known or suspected that Sandusky was abusing children, he would have been the first to intervene."

On Penn State's Senior Vice President-Finance and Business Gary C. Schultz:

"Even after criminal charges were announced against Schultz and Curley in November 2011, Spanier continued to downplay the serious harm that could result to Penn State's reputation from the criminal charges, and issued a statement of 'unconditional support' for Schultz and Curley."

"... In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the University -- Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley -- repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky's child abuse from the authorities, the University's Board of Trustees, the Penn State community, and the public at large. The avoidance of the consequences of bad publicity is the most significant, but not the only, cause for this failure to protect child victims and report to authorities."

On Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley:

"These men concealed Sandusky's activities from the board of trustees, the university community and authorities. They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well-being, especially by not attempting to determine the identity of the child who Sandusky assaulted in the Lasch Building in 2001."

"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh wrote. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."

I'm not sure who deserves worse treatment in prison, Jerry Sandusky or every single on of these dirt bags.

Welcome To Prison You Son of a Bitch

Dear Inmate Sandusky  - 

It seems that you have finally lost control of the fantasy.  The darkness of lusting after young flesh has been brought into the light, and it seems “Coach" that you are now headed to prison. 

I wanted to offer you a word of welcome:

The nighttime is terrifying.  You will shiver often with the mind-numbing fear of his unwelcome hands.  The stench of his filthy teeth will commandeer your sense of smell.  Your body will be riddled with the aching aftermath of his carnal brutality.  Screams of protest will radiate from every cell in your body as your attacker marks YOU as his target.  A mark you will feel every moment of every day, even when he’s not there.  

Welcome to the nighttime that your victims, and your son, know well.

The showers will also pose a problem.  It is a place, as you know, that leaves one quite vulnerable.  Naked.  Exposed.   You will never again be able to bathe alone and in peace.  The cleansing warmth of a simple shower will forever be tainted by the horror of intrusion, the panic of constantly being preyed upon, and the anxiety of relentlessly being watched.  Unfortunately, "Coach", there is no soap that can wash away this fear; no salve that will bring back the experience of losing yourself in the warm embrace of a shower.

Welcome to the shower that your victims, and your son, know well.

All this, and yet the nagging and unyielding embarrassment will be your biggest challenge.  Congratulations!  Your diseased thirst for little boys is now infamous; your name synonymous with "pedophile", "pervert", and "molester".   Your journey on this planet, your legacy, will be forever connected to your predatory assaults on the innocent.  Your history is set in stone.   

Welcome to the hell that you must endure alone.  Every day.  For the rest of your life.

You see, "Coach", your end is your victim’s beginning.  A beginning marked with hope, healing, and light.  You no longer have control over anyone (including yourself).   My deepest prayer is that one day you will find the courage to admit to, for the sake of every boy you’ve ever put your hands on, what you’ve done.

Asking forgiveness is the least you could do.

So, without further ado, welcome to prison you son of a bitch.  May time with your demons usher you into the light.

Sincerely,
A Survivor 

    

Second Class Citizens: Rise Up!!!

I had a very morbid dream the other night.  I dreamt of a man who was stranded in the middle of a desert.  The wind was gusty and the sky dark.  On his knees, the man writhed in pain as his chest suddenly ripped open, exposing his beating heart.  Out of nowhere, pin pricks began appearing on his arms and he slowly bled from each new opening.  As he cried to God in agony, his face grew desperate and his eyes bloodied with tears.

For some strange reason, as the dreamer, I could feel his pain.  It was the pain of this world.  The pain of never having been good enough.  The pain of always feeling inferior.  The pain of longing for approval from the one person from his past who made him feel insignificant and worthless.  The pain of being a second-class citizen.

A pain that every one of us has felt at some point on our journey.

It was heartbreaking . . . and familiar.

When I woke I was greeted by my laptop with a rundown of the weekly news, which included:  more victims coming forward in the Penn State scandal,  a church banning an interracial couple from its walls and new women surfacing in the Herman Cain scandal.  So I clicked over to facebook for a little mindless trolling. . .only to find my childhood church in similar disrepair.

What's happening to us?

Children are being raped and abused (by priests, coaches, teachers and family members) and no one speaks up to protect them.  Children are being bullied so severely that suicide seems like a better option than suffering through even one more day of school.  Women are being sexually harassed by lustful politicians, only to have the media take aim at them.  Humans are deciding who is and who is not good enough to kneel at the throne of God.  Entire groups of people are demanding Christian/Muslim/Jewish monuments be taken down because religious symbols are too offensive to them.   Gay folks are being treated like outcasts.  Mothers are killing their children.  Fathers are killing their pregnant wives.    Our government is using faith as a ploy to control our votes.

Millions of people are bleeding in the desert, made to feel like second-class citizens by cowards.

Enough is enough.

When is this mayhem going to stop?

When we rise up, open our mouths and quit turning a blind eye to the sorrows of our neighbor.  When we accept the fact that we are all precious and valued in the eyes of God.  When we bravely fight for what’s right, hopeful and just - and not just for ourselves, but for one another.  When we base our moral compass on love and common decency.  When we quit searching for heroes on the TV.  When we openly question our government, our churches, our rhetoric and our convictions.    When we choose to base our politics, our religions and our families on the love and mercy of our Creator, rather than the love of ego, money, party politics and antiquated traditions.

When we look up, rather than down.

Cowards perpetuate hate and fear, heroes open their mouths and bravely stand (often alone) for what’s right.

I only hope to be half the hero that this kid is. . .

Thanks, Anne Rice for the link to this video.