Apathy and Cowardice

People involved in the exacerbation of the Penn State Jerry Sandusky child molestation nightmare seem to be realizing the extent to which they allowed evil to influence them.

The charity that Sandusky founded (The Second Mile) and which he used to identify and select victims has realized that any good that it may have done can not survive the evil caused by Sandusky:

According to Fox News,  David Woodle, the chief executive of The Second Mile has said that "We're working hard to figure out how the programs can survive this event, We aren't protective of the organization that it survives at all costs."

Various collegiate and local political groups have realized that they probably even need to divorce themselves of Joe Paterno, the head coach, who was one of several individuals who supported Sandusky’s child molestation by deliberately and utterly failing to report Sandusky’s evil deeds over a period of many years:

Pennsylvania's two senators, Democrat Bob Casey, and Republican Patrick Toomey have put down their pitchforks and torches for long enough to come to agreement on something: they've both rescinded their support for their prior nomination of Joe Paterno for the nation's highest civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. According to the New York Times, the senators issued the following statement in conjunction with rescinding their nomination of Paterno:

"Penn State is an important institution in our commonwealth, we should turn our attention to the victims of these atrocious crimes and ensure they get the help they need. Our hearts and prayers go out to them and their families."

According to the Washington Post,  Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl has written a letter strongly rebuking Franco Harris, a former Penn State star who spoke out against the firing of Joe Paterno. Harris is a member of the “Pittsburgh Promise” scholarship board. Ravenstahl and the board gave serious consideration to removing Harris based on his support for Paterno before ultimately deciding on the letter of rebuke.

Brown University is carefully watching the situation as well. Joe Paterno graduated from there in 1950, and the university awards a “Joe Paterno ’50 Award” to "outstanding first-year varsity male athletes." They are considering renaming the award, given Paterno's cowardly inaction. According to the article in the Boston Globe, Matt Kutler, a 2001 honoree, said it “wouldn’t be a bad idea’’ to remove Paterno’s name.


So what about the william ayres case?

In January of 2002,  ayres was nominated by then San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon (Gordon is now a California State Assemblyman)  for a "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his "service on the Children and Families First Commission, and his tireless efforts to improve the lives of children and adolescents."

The resolution was passed by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in spite of the fact that several reports of molestation had already been filed (and dismissed without investigation) with various county agencies. Board Members who approved the nomination unanimously: Mark Church, Richard S. Gordon, Jerry Hill, Rose Jacobs Gibson, Michael D. Nevin; County Manager: John Maltbie; County Counsel: Tom Casey


On several occasions San Mateo County Board of Supervisors members have been asked by victims and their families to move to revoke the “Lifetime Achievement Award” and nothing has happened.

Rich Gordon has been asked to do the same on several occasions by me and others -- four times by me, --through his office email, and in facebook posts, and even in person in some cases – emails have gone unanswered, and the facebook posts promptly deleted. In person requests were apparently greeted coldly, consideration promised, and promptly ignored.

I’d like to be able to say that our local politicians are not savvy enough to recognize their cowardice in the face of so much evil – that they are so afraid to call attention to their own shortcomings in supporting ayres, that they don’t want to raise the issue, but frankly the local press and the local authorities, and even the local citizens seem so apathetic to the damage done by child sexual abuse, that the local politicians can just continue to act in a cowardly manner with little fear of the kind of public backlash being experienced by those involved in the Sandusky case.

william hamilton ayres couldn’t have picked a better county in which to molest young boys.