PSU Faculty: Tough To Come To Terms With Paterno's Passing
(WSCR) One day after the passing of Joe Paterno, many in the Penn State community are struggling to make sense of the events of the last three months.
During that time, the nation watched as Paterno went from the winningest coach in college football history to one of the most vilified coaches in college football history.
Malcom Moran, the sports journalism director at Penn State, said he's struggling to make sense of Paterno's actions regarding what he did when told of the alleged abuse being committed by Jerry Sandusky.
"(Paterno) acknowledge that he failed in a very important way," Moran said. "Part of the definition of his legacy will be determined by whether or not we can ever come up with an answer for what the motivation was for that failure. Was it, in fact, that he grew up Catholic in Brooklyn in the 30s and 40s and there were certain things that were just not discussed. By saying that, I'm not condoning anything. I'm just trying to place him in a certain culture that formed his outlook. Is that part of it? Or, on the other hand, you could ask: Is there a cover up?"
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"What I have a hard time coming to terms with, based on my professional estimation, based on my time here and also my time parachuting in as a visitor, here was somebody who, with his wife, devoted a professional lifetime to helping young people. There are hundreds and hundreds whose lives were made better because of his contributions. The idea that he turned his back on young people in distress, and why or how that happened, is a very difficult thing for me to deal with."
The complete details behind the Penn State child sex abuse scandal are still coming to light, with more and more information being released every day. Moran said it will be tough to make any judgments until all the facts come out.
"The events of the last two months, or the disclosures, rather, are still so raw and just so tragic when you think about the alleged victims and how their lives have been changed, that I think it makes it very hard to define things, partly because we're still so close to it and partly because there is still so much that we don't know about what did happen," Moran said.
