There is something very wrong with people.
We seem to collectively want to turn our heads and deny horrors when they happen around us. There is evil stalking us, and we let it in to invade any shred of reasoning capacity we may have, we celebrate its very existence, rather than face it down, and stop it.
To be sure, the real evil takes up housekeeping in the empty husks of bodies that were intended to house human beings. Creatures like Jerry Sandusky and, indeed william ayres, roam the earth, creating suffering and damage that will perpetuate itself, generating fresh fodder for further exploitation and damage.
Sandusky of course, is the Penn State assistant coach who established “The Second Mile,” a charitable foundation to help provide “care” for foster children, and who now stands charged with anally raping a ten year old boy in the college facilities. There are at least 8 people who have officially come forward as victims. I would be shocked if his body count was NOT in the hundreds. It has been widely speculated (with good reason) that Sandusky founded the charity to help him obtain victims.
But here's the rub:
Penn State had a whole host of management who could have put a stop to the evil, but instead, they looked evil square in the eye, and invited it in to their house. It started with Mike McQueary who claims that he actually witnessed Sandusky anally raping a young boy in the facility’s shower.
Here’s what one of the mothers of the victims
had to say about Mike:
“I don’t even have words to talk about the betrayal that I feel,” said the mom of Victim Six. “[McQueary] was a grown man, and he saw a boy being sodomized ... He ran and called his daddy?”
After Mike called his daddy, likely already fearful (and possibly advised by daddy) of the prospect of seeing his own career besmirched for reporting the beast, he again failed to do the FIRST thing he should have done: either beat Sandusky to death, or call the cops.
Instead he talked to other coaches, who talked to other university officials, and none of them had the courage to do the right thing. They all stared into the headlights of their precious careening reputations, and now, instead of being heros, the likes of Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, Vice President of Business and Finance Gary Schultz, coach Joe Paterno, and Penn State President Graham Spanier are just another line of cowards who gave up a bit of their soul in exchange for the privilege of running defense for tangible evil.
And we get to watch the evil continue to infect and infest, as dim-wittted Penn State students rally, and even riot on Paterono’s behalf, showing evil support for a coward too blinded by his own fame to see the damage he’s let be done.
As the rioting in Paterno’s behalf started, he made some statements:
He told a crowd of supporters:
"Pray for the [sexual abuse] victims," he told the crowd. "We love you."
BUT:
He also issued a statement, obtained by Fox News, saying that he was disappointed with the board's decision but would have to accept it.
Heroic statement of support and contrition it is not… It just shows that he clearly doesn’t understand the evil that was wrought while he ran defense for the Devil.
The impact that this kind of crime has is very painful and difficult to describe, but
Dr. Keith Ablow does a good job of hinting at it in his article in Fox News. It doesn’t deliver the full breadth and depth of the impact, but it touches upon the tip of the iceberg:
When a child is made to participate in a sex act with an adult, it leads to intense feelings of fear and guilt and betrayal, which can easily color his or her entire existence.
These feelings are often suppressed. Hence, they can crop up in devastating ways later on: in the inability to trust any authority figure, in a tendency to avoid feelings at all, in literally slipping away from reality (dissociating), in attempts to suppress memories and feelings using alcohol and illicit drugs, in attention deficit disorder, in major depression, in sexual disorders and in suicide.
The evil persists.
There are similar players in the william ayres story as well:
Family memebers Solveig and Robert ayres, Shrinks Etta Bryant, Robert Kimmich, Larry Lurie, and all of the
others who asked for financial support for the Devil himself are all good examples of evil at work, There are others. People who are supposed to defend against evil and alert the public about its reality look the other way, and twist the truth to distract from the damage done by evil.
The stench and decay spreads, and true heros are few and far between.
Evil always has the last laugh. After you willingly sell your soul protecting Evil, it exposes you for what you really have become.
BY THE WAY: Here's an
EXCELLENT article about what TO DO if you encounter child sexual abuse, by Michael Reagan. He gets it EXACTLY right, and in the right order of priority.
AND: another nod to Victoria Balfour for being one of the few and far between.
