Please don’t get me wrong, I do not dismiss the heroes. There are countless heroes. However, the current mortgage crisis shows us that there are many more people who are willing and able to be passive and even active for their own selfish gains or because they perceive an inability to survive excepting their current situation. Many people believe that if they do not stay quiet about their boss’s cheating – not only will they lose their current job, but they risk a life time of work as they become labeled a whistle blower. Let’s face it, people with integrity and willingness to speak out are in the very minor minority.
I know and understand the complete and abject panic one can feel when employed by a very bad person, there is a strong possibility that you will end up on the streets within a very small amount of time. More and more, people are forced to swallow their integrity so that they can feed their family.
How do you know when this passivity is ridiculously over the line? Well in the case of head Coach Joe Paterno and his friend Jerry Sandusky, how could you NOT know that the line was crossed? How can Joe Paterno have believed that his wealth and the institution of Pennsylvania State was more important than the health and welfare of human beings. Can we say Nazi?
Millions of people around the world sat idly by while the Nazis committed awful atrocities on human bodies and then committed millions of murders. As humans, didn’t we learn anything? What stories were people telling themselves to ignore the truth?
What stories did the staff at Penn State tell themselves? Courtesy of the internet and emails, we understand that Joe Paterno and his board cronies had decided that Penn State as a football icon was much more important than the children that Sandusky was raping. So why didn’t they fire him and get rid of him, why not? Why instead was he able to use the university as his cover to continue committing crimes? Why?