Men's Antiviolence Council - Analysis of Penn State abuse situation

I haven't said anything yet about the Penn State situation, which at best is horrible and should never have happened. Sandusky was somehow given a free pass until this came out - because of what? Fear of bringing down a football program? Loyalty to a former employee (who still draws a large pension)? Ignorance?

The first whiff of this should have mandated a police report and child services investigation - why did no one do this? Why did this get covered up while allowing a pedophile to continue abusing boys who were already victims of abuse?

Shit like this makes me sick - those boys were already victimized, that's how they got into this guy's program. How did anyone let him get that far? A man does not suddenly start victimizing kids after the age of 50 - he has a history of this is my guess.

The Men's Antiviolence Council posted a brief article on this featuring a segment of the Up with Chris Hayes show (MSNBC). The discussion in the video is both useful and frustrating.

Here is some of the post from the Men's Antiviolence Council:

Up with Chris Hayes  convened a panel to discuss the situation in a novel way, namely in relationship to the power and financial influence of college football on the the campus and community. (Hint: Of the entire annual athletic revenue of $116 million at Penn State, $72 million of that is from football). How do you hold a powerful institution and the leaders accountable? The discussion also likened the Penn State situation to the way child abuse and rape accusations were handled by the Catholic Church (also, the Boys Scouts of America have done the exact same thing).

 

One of my favorite quotes from the clip is, “We should not just talk about the (child) predation but discuss the sickness that feeds it (referring to silence, ignoring, coverup, and denying about child sexual abuse/rape).

Check out the clip below for an interesting and in-depth discussion about the issue.

If you want to learn more about the scandal, here are links to the timeline and grand jury report.