Collateral Damage

The statue of Joe Paterno at Penn State has been taken down. The NCAA has imposed sanctions which include a fine equal to one year of gross revenue (not profit) of the football program, four years of ineligibility for bowl games, and vacated wins going back to 1998.

There are many people who will be affected by this in State College, Pennsylvania. People who personally did nothing wrong. Those young men who dreamed of playing football for Penn State will be living a very different reality from that of their dreams. Businesses will suffer because the economy in that area is dependent on the school. Some will likely find themselves out of work.

Collateral damage, like the loss of innocent civilians during war. It's unavoidable in this case. But the NCAA and its president Mark Emmert are not to blame. It's important, I believe, to remember who is really responsible for all the carnage. Jerry Sandusky and the people such as Joe Paterno who sheltered him.

All of our actions in life have consequences, both pleasant and unpleasant, for those around us. We can become cavalier in our atttiude that what we do only affects us, but that is never true. How we live impacts others in both direct and indirect ways. It goes against what we as Americans often believe. We celebrate the rugged individualist who does it his own way. Yet we are all in this together, whether we like it or not. And my life affects other people, in ways I can't even begin to understand.

Susan