Moral trumps legal, every time!

Moral trumps legal, every time!

While watching the whole Penn State child sex abuse saga, I couldn’t help but think ‘what’s this world come to?’  How can someone witness what the a then Graduate Assistant, now current suspended wide receivers coach, saw and then just keep walking, even for a second.  Where is the moral conscience?  And then it was repeated up the ladder, head coach, AD, President, and it probably won’t end there.  There are sure to be others come forward to reveal more disgusting crimes against children. 

I heard a co-worker comment, ‘if anyone saw a 10 year old boy with a 55 year old man having sex,  they were obligated to stand there, get out their phone, and call the police, and remove the child from harm.  Anything less is unforgiveable.’  I agree.  Yeah, there are different degrees of this crime and an obvious cover up, but how can a person live with themselves knowing they did nothing to stop the act as they witnessed it.  I think people who turn and look the other way only help enable criminals committing these terrible offenses. 

It’s easy to see how this could happen when something or someone becomes a ‘sacred cow’.   Once a person in a leadership position becomes beyond the reach of the rules and laws because of empathy felt by others surrounding that leader, the institution they represent is doomed.  It’s simple as that.  When a person feels bad for what might happen, such as, ‘I don’t want to say anything because it might not be well received’, or ‘it might come back on me’, it’s a problem.  That’s what we seem to accept as a society, just walk away because it’s none of our business.   What a cheap, dirty, filthy, and just plain low way to behave as a human being, especially when children are involved.

What I feel about the reaction of Paterno supporters (especially the students), is more than a genuine disgust for the lack of interest for the wellbeing of the victims.  Joe Paterno is no victim at any level of this drama, but the lack of moral fiber that nearly all close to the situation have shown is the sickening part.    Meaning that, just because it’s legal to meet the minimum reporting requirements, doesn’t excuse you from the more noble higher moral requirement to help a person in need, being tortured by a person in power.  Or to put it more graphically, a 55 year old man raping a 10 year old boy.   Did no one learn back in the 70’s that the cover-up is just as bad and sometimes does more damage than the actual crime.

I think everyone that supports the powers, or rather, former powers, at Penn State should have to endure just 10 seconds of pain and suffering that these victims have to live with the rest of their lives.  Do you think for a second that Paterno would have allowed this to be swept under the rug if it were one of his grandchildren?  Here’s your answer, he wouldn’t.  You see, even if he doesn’t condone now or then, the actions, and better yet, if he doesn’t recognize the power others saw in him, he’s responsible.  He’s responsible for the atmosphere at Penn State by virtue of having hand- picked the coaches and having the say-so in every aspect of his program and all sports at PSU, if by no other way than to hold power with funding interests.   Isn’t the funding what the hushing of the accusations was all about?

So here’s a question to ask yourself, when a leader realizes that he’s being looked upon with intimidation, even if created by others outside of their control, should they relinquish power for the sake of objectivity?   Have you ever been intimidated to the point that you didn’t want to be the one to be the bearer of bad news?  If you’ve felt this then you should be able to understand this whole situation.  But, bigger than the feelings of regret is the responsibility to do the right thing.  There are no acceptable excuses for turning away from a despicable crime such as what took place at Penn State by one of their many ‘sacred cows’.  Hopefully, everyone in the world will learn from this tragedy.  And I think that it’s only a tragedy for the victims, not for the leaders at Penn State.  They chose to be in this position, and had over a decade to get it right, but did they?

This nation should get this one thing right, moral requirements trump legal requirements, each and every time.  So, look out for criminals of all professions, they are counting on people to just turn and walk away, just like at Penn State.  So, what will you do to change this?