Never forget!
Posted on 11/14/2011 3:29:55 PM PST by Wayne07
There are moral absolutes in life, and one of them is this: If a man comes across a child rape in process, he should do whatever he can to stop the rape and protect the child. There should be no reasonable debate about this, and the relevant question is not whether that standard is correct but whether we have the individual courage to meet that standard.
Those two sentences should be among the least controversial ever written in the pages of NRO. Indeed, there should be no need to even write them, but in the aftermath of my Friday posting about cowardice at Penn State, I was surprised at the number of individuals — both in the comments and via e-mail — who admonished me for my rush to judgment of the young graduate assistant who failed to stop Sandusky and failed even to call the police. “His career was at risk” some said. Others noted that Sandusky was likely a “father figure” to the young coach. Still others said that telling Joe Paterno many hours later was “enough.” But what does all that say about the inherent selfishness of the rationalizer? How important is your career? How much will you allow perceived authority to intimidate you? Do you respond to a crisis by asking what is “enough,” or what is right?
Friday night I had dinner with a fellow Iraq vet, a guy who served as a critical-care doctor at Balad Air Base, where he treated soldiers with horrific wounds. He noted how people in crisis, particularly people facing crises they’ve never experienced, almost always go through a moment of denial — a “this can’t really be happening” moment where they process the events around them and make, sometimes in less than a second, that most basic human choice: Fight or flight. I saw the same thing in my time downrange. I saw that moment of shock — and went through it myself — when events accelerate beyond experience or reason. We can try to prepare ourselves and we can imagine how we’d react, but you never know with metaphysical certainty until you’re there, until the moment strikes, what you will do. In fact it is that very uncertainty that makes the moral declaration all the more important, a vital anchor as the waves of fear, confusion, and doubt wash over you.
And believe me, in those times moral expectations do matter. There are soldiers who have stood and fought when every single cell in their body was screaming for them to run because they would rather die than abandon their brothers. The moral expectation was the difference between courage and cowardice, between victory and defeat. In fact, our nation’s very existence depends on the willingness of brave men and women to toe that moral line and utterly abandon self-interest in the face of mortal danger. And while we understand why some tiny minority of soldiers have run, we don’t condone it. Cowardice is still cowardice even if the conditions are extreme.
It is a sad irony that a graduate student who was part of the fake military culture that pervades football could not summon even a fraction of the warrior ethos when confronted not with mortal danger but danger to his career and reputation. If you read the grand jury report and honestly take from it that you would have responded the same way when confronted with the reality of child rape, you shouldn’t question the moral imperative of intervention. Instead, question yourself.
no doubt the athletic department will be held to a higher moral standard than the rest of the university.
Just the opening lines say it all.
It should be as obvious as 2+2=4
Then again, the left probably would scream that that is a white male construct and not everyones reality.
lol
LJ, your courage quote.
They are all guilty of enabling this monster...of turning their eyes away from abject abuse and sexual assault on under-aged boys. They were protecting their $90 million dollar a year football program and were too cowardly (or themselves wrapped up in it in some way) to even help the young men they witnessed being brought to those events.
It is a sick, disgusting, sad affair.
The University president, the Atheletic Director, and Coach Paterno all need to be charged with some form of criminal neglect IMHO and based on reading these sequence of events.
The Penn State Football program should get a 3-5 year death penalty.
How absolutely revolting and disgusting.
I wonder if Joe would have acted differently if Sandusky showed up to one of the "events" with Paterno's grandson? Or of the Janitor or other coach had seen Paterno's grandson in the shower with Sandusky.
How does the other coach see it, eyewitness the sexual assault in the shower, or the janitor for that matter...and NOT STOP IT RIGHT THEN WHILE IT WAS OCCURING? Much less immediately call the police?
It may be wrong...but as God is my witness, if I knew (and these people knew it) someone was doing this to one of my boys when they were younger (they're grown now) are any of my grandkids, the individual involved would never do it again. He would cease to be amongst the living just as soon as I could get there...and I would be happy to rely on a jury of my peers, whatever the outcome, and do so with a clear conscience.
If you're, say, on a college campus and somebody starts shooting your reactions may be different. It may take longer for you to achieve clarity.
I'm not trying to contradict the writer or defend the grad student -- just saying that when it makes a difference whether people are prepared for or expecting something or aren't.
Well, he is absolutely right. And I must confess that I have been giving the graduate student some benefit of the doubt.
What would I have done if I’d seen something like that happening. I think I’d have intervened. Because seeing it would have really brought it home. But you don’t really know what you would do in a sudden and unexpected emergency until it happens.
This writer cites war as an example. My own experience has been sailing, when I’ve been caught at sea in a sudden storm and needed to act at once. You don’t know what you would do until you’ve been through something like that.
I got the mainsail down before the boat went over and sank, even though I was seasick and throwing up while I did it. My cousin, who I would have thought was as good a sailor as I am, just stood there paralyzed, even though he didn’t get seasick.
But David French is right. The right thing to do was to intervene and stop it.
[There are moral absolutes in life, and one of them is this: If a man comes across a child rape in process, he should do whatever he can to stop the rape and protect the child. There should be no reasonable debate about this, and the relevant question is not whether that standard is correct but whether we have the individual courage to meet that standard.]
I agree with this, but there are even some FReepers defending McQueary. Actually, quite a few.
As an aside, note that this is one of the central points of Robert Heinlein's book "Starship Troopers".
Never forget!
Excellent article, BUMP!
how much clarity does one need when one sees an ADULT MALE sexually molesting a young boy?
Not sure why anyone views the happenings at Penn State w/ surprise. Why would anyone stop/report a rape when society seems all good w/ killing the unborn or partially born. Children are a thing to be played w/ and if necessary murdered. We cant have it both ways. Either protect all or none and at the moment it seems like none.
Jon Ritchie in an interview says he would have frozen and run away. He makes it understandable if not forgivable. As he says, not calling police, not following through after the immediate shock is over, is a different issue.
But after seeing the Ritchie interview I can understand that it would be far easier for a stranger to intervene, than for someone who thought he knew Sandusky, who loved and revered him.
well.http://www.sportsgrid.com/ncaa-football/jon-ritchie-sandusky/
There is no doubt, by his own admission, that McQueary is a coward.
Athletes were once held to a higher standard because so many young people look up to them. Then professional sports began to let those standards go downhill and if someone was really go at a sport, they could be a rapist, thief, degenerate, whatever, and they were allowed to go on playing. That was where this all started.
Professional and college sports needs to clean up their act. Anyone who cannot be a good moral example should be bounced out on their ear. That’s the way it used to be. It needs to be that way again.
how much clarity does one need when one sees an ADULT MALE sexually molesting a young boy?
Initially, I was disgusted and offended that a 28 year old man apparently couldn’t do the right thing and stop a rape in progress. Now, I’m beginning to think that a wide scale pattern of child abuse for money to Penn State has been exposed. It makes you look at child rape in Bangkok and Cambodia as symptomatic of a world consuming hedonistic criminality. Where ever an adult rapes a child, the adult should be permanently removed from the society and the pimp killed.
I agree, and I think that is his point. That we need a culture that says very loudly and clearly that one has a moral imperative to act. Individuals need moral training like soldiers need basic training. The PSU apologists are actively undermining the moral imperative with their football worship. A loud vocal condemnation now might help the someone act next time this happens.
However as far as the career goes, aren't there other football programs? Don't coaches tend to move around some?
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