in response to meleemarybee:

I think what you’re not understanding about what I’m saying is that these people on the board knew Paterno as their colleague, friend, and (now ex) respected member of the university’s community. They were in shock and were obviously distraught that someone they knew could’ve been so ~purposefully~ negligent to the horrible things that occurred. Also it took them 4 days, 4 DAYS to finalize their decision to fire him. That may sound like a long time, but for the amount of shit that the university had to go through, and is probably still going through to recover from this, is not a long time at all. Even though what happened was wrong in so many ways, nothing is black and white. The trustees made a decision that for all of us outsiders to the situation may have seemed easy, but came with a lot more damage. Also the dropping the soap thing, A. that was a joke. while no one who ends up in prison wants to get raped, trust me, it happens. especially to child molesters. B. Sandusky is a child molester. I didn’t say that because I agree with ‘eye for an eye’, but as soon as it’s known what he’s in prison for, he will be made somebody’s bitch. it’s harsh to think about, but that’s how it is.

I’m sorry you can’t see what I’m trying to say, but we aren’t directly involved. Imagine if you were in the position of one of the trustees and you found out one of your friends and colleagues had been involved in something terrible. You would immediately turn on them with ‘righteous anger’ and basically go after them with torches and pitchforks? NO. You would want to make sure it was 100% true, you’d want to know the facts, you’d want to support this person until the devastating realization came to light that they had done what they’d done. And when the truth did come out, you would understand immediately what action(s) needed to be taken. You would know to do the right thing when the time was right, and if that meant you’d be firing them, then you’d do it. You would do the right thing for everyone, even if it meant losing a former friend and colleague.

I really want to look at this from your perspective, but I just can’t. Is it so wrong to have empathy for the trustees? They didn’t molest any children and they didn’t overlook it happening. They only fired Joe Paternro, as they rightfully should have. Neither of us can actually get all the information about what happened except for what’s being released in the news. Newspapers may be written in black and white (literally and figuratively), but we don’t have to read them that way.

**By the way tumblr world, meleemarybee is actually one of my really close friends from college (and rugby!) so our debating is friendly and not trollish. We just enjoy speaking our minds even if we’re not in full agreement of each other. Trust me, if I was having a fight over the internet, it would be fucking fierce.