And my beloved JoePa. That breaks my heart. I've known of JoePa all of my life. I certainly did not know him personally but I knew of him from the way my parents talked about him, my interactions with his family on committees on which I've served, from the way that the media (on good days, in winning seasons) have portrayed him. Poor judgment and the assumption that superiors within the University would appropriately take care of matters are what has brought around JoePa's end as coach. I think that is incredibly sad.
My parents taught me right from wrong - there is no doubt about that. As a kid the worst possible consequence of careless acts on my part would be to disappoint my parents. But yet, how many times have I made a decision to do something that could potentially harm someone else? Not waiting for a bigger break in traffic before making a turn, not returning a phone call, not volunteering for something, not keeping my word.
It is really sad to think that so much of this horrific mess could easily have been avoided and lives spared if someone along the way had done the right thing. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and I think that there have been many weak links. There are always weak links.
As a Penn State alumni and a Penn State employee, I will always be proud of my University. Because Penn State is the students, the faculty who teach them, the staff who work hard to provide the best, most excellent service to our students, the ones who don't earn 6 or 7 figure salaries who oftentimes, can barely make ends meet but yet show up to work each day because we believe in the value of education.
