Maybe I'm just a minority opinion here, but I think that when you knowingly shelter, protect, and enable a child rapist, you're just as culpable for the raped children as the rapist themselves. And that's exactly what Paterno did.
...As did many others. He may have been a load-bearing brick*, but he was not the entire wall.
As Thad said, enabling is very tempting, even if objectively looking at it shows that it is 100% the
wrong thing to do. I think it's a bad thing, but it's not as bad as child rape. Child rape doesn't come with any rationalizations that are, y'know, rational. Enabling is the result of over rationalization. If it was just "YAER! FOOTBAHL!!1," then he deserves all the flak he's getting, but we can't be sure of that.
...Oh fuck, I just realized that last line was enabling enabling!
*or even just a scape-goat brick.
Warning - while you were typing 2 new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post. I think it's just a shitty shity situation all round. Nobody got what they wanted, everyone is hurt, dozens of lives have been destroyed, and decades of good work have been undone overnight.
Yes. Now let's all shut up about this.