Penn Editorial 11.11.11

Needless to say, there are many lessons to be learned from the situation going on at Penn State. Those lessons that should be learned have been said time and time again on plenty of television networks over the last couple of days.

But while learning those lessons, let's not lose sight of who the real victims in this whole situation are.

It's not the Penn State students who took to the streets after hearing of Joe Paterno's firing. It's not Penn State itself, whose reputation took a major hit because of all of this. It's not Mike McQueary, who actually witnessed one of these alleged heinous acts.     

And it's definitely not Paterno, who for all he did for the university on and off the football field, will be remembered more for what didn't do.

The real victims in all of this are the boys who were allegedly sexually abused by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

These boys have been living with this for who knows how long, and will continue to do so for the rest of their lives. They were the ones who were left under the supervision of someone who was supposed to be trusted and true, but yet betrayed by one of their heroes. They are in fact the one and only collective victim.

The riot that took place Wednesday night was misdirected and a product of a few misinformed people that grew into a few thousand.

Why didn't anyone take to the streets for the boys who are now grown men? Why didn't anyone take to the streets upon hearing of the cover-up of this whole tragedy?

Instead, the students took to the streets because a man, who didn't go out of his way to help these children, lost his job. Football is not the end-all, be-all of life. Paterno is a legend in college football and deserved to leave his post as head coach in a better fashion, but at the end of the day, all it takes is one bad decision to ruin a pristine reputation.

Legendary status or not, some things are far, far more important.