CSotD: Measuring to spot the ball …
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The report on the Penn State sexual abuse scandal has unleashed a predictable torrent of political cartoons, most of them predictably not very good.
I like Steve Breen's take.
The scandal has certainly brought out the obvious, including the weepers. In this case, timing is as critical as subject matter: Back in November, when the grand jury report surfaced, I highlighted Mike Keefe's cartoon, which was unabashedly sentimental, but which was also timely, because it was offered as a counterpoint to the defenses of Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
Whether the sexual abuse of children is sad is a debate we don't need to extend at this point. And, when Paterno died in January, CSOTD revisited the scandal, this time in a discussion of his legacy, and the hate mail Clay Jones received for bringing up the scandal in a Pearly Gates cartoon.
I noted then that, whether it's "fair" or not, a person's legacy can hinge on one factor to the exclusion of others, such that LBJ's tireless work on behalf of civil rights is forgotten in light of his part in the Vietnam War.
At this stage, however, the issue on the table is not the nature of child sexual abuse or the degree of Joe Paterno's knowledge. With the lies and denials and excuse-making swept aside, we've gone beyond what Paterno knew or should have known. Not only was Paterno well aware of "the problem" but knowledge of the problem went all the way up the line to the administration of the university.
Which, first of all, brings a cynical note to the university's early announcement that they would like to assist the victims and come to some fair settlements, which sounded responsive at the time but now makes you wonder if they were hoping to get some signatures on paper before the true extent of the coverup emerged.
But, mostly, the relevant issue has become "Now what?"
Paterno is dead and Sandusky will certainly not outlive whatever jail sentence he is given, while the others named at the head of the coverup have resigned or been fired, though I'm sure they'll face some civil action, as will the university itself.
But the Paterno statue makes a good symbol of the "Now what?" issue, because Penn State and the NCAA have an issue of institutional control to deal with, and I don't know of any precedent for them to go by in resolving it.
Normally, when the NCAA takes notice of a lack of institutional control, it's because the administration should have noticed athletes tooling around campus in sports cars, or scalping bundles of tickets to create large incomes for themselves. When felonious conduct has emerged — sometimes pointshaving, too often sexual assault on fellow students — it has centered on what the coach knew and when did he know it.
It has never come up in terms of conduct spanning more than a decade, it has never come up in terms of conversations in which athletic department personnel and top administrators agreed to cover up clearly felonious and ongoing conduct.
Which is to say, in the normal course of scandals, a coach resigns, a runningback drops out, a school may lose a few scholarships or the right to appear in bowl games for a couple of years. Hands are washed, life goes on.
The NCAA has only invoked its "death penalty" five times, and only in the case of Southern Methodist's football team was it for violations that were clearly known to those above the level of the athletic department in the chain of command.
And, in all five cases, it was for actions which impacted competitive fairness, and that is the element that the NCAA has to consider now: Penn State did not win or lose any football games because of permitting a pederast to get away with his crimes.
At the same time, as the Freeh Report makes clear, Sandusky used the excitement and prestige of the Penn State football program as a central strategy in luring his victims. It's as if they drove him to a bank and waiting outside with the motor running while he went inside and robbed it.
The "car" was the football program, and it was being used — with the knowledge of the administration — in the commitment of a felony.
Given all that, the statue of Paterno is a potent symbol — not just in cartooning but on the campus itself — of the lack of balance, perspective and plain common sense and decency which went into this series of crimes.
Whatever else Penn State or the NCAA decides, the statue is no longer a tribute to glory. I rather like what Bruce Plante did with it. Now let's see what Penn State does with it.
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