‘Of course we’re going to riot,” Paul Howard, a 24-year-old aerospace-engineering student at Penn State University, told the New York Times. “What do they expect when they tell us at 10 o’clock that they fired our football coach?”
The coach in question, as we all know, is Joe Paterno, the decades-long patriarch of Penn State football. Paterno was fired by the board of trustees for his part in a reprehensible non-response to the alleged rape of a ten-year-old boy in the locker-room showers.
You have to wonder what’s wrong with our society when someone can say, “Of course we’re going to riot,” but not over the cover-up of pedophiliac rape. Rather, students feel it is their obvious right, perhaps even duty, to throw violent temper tantrums when a multimillionaire football coach is fired, simply because the coach is part of their “college experience.”
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“We got rowdy, and we got maced,” Jeff Heim, 19, told the Times while rubbing his bloodshot eyes after police used pepper spray to disperse the rioters. “But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend.”
Really?
I don’t think Paterno is anywhere near the worst offender among those who did considerably less than the bare minimum that decency and integrity require. But there’s something deeply, pathetically sick about the idea that what tarnished Paterno’s legend was his termination and not the fact that he never once bothered to ensure that an alleged child rapist was stopped.
Yes, yes: Journalistic niceties require that I say Jerry Sandusky, the longtime assistant coach accused of serial sexual abuse and exploitation of children, hasn’t been proven guilty of anything yet. And that’s true. But it doesn’t exonerate Paterno and other officials. An eyewitness said he saw Sandusky sodomizing the boy in the shower. Unless officials thought it was a demonstrable lie, they had a moral and legal obligation to contact police. But they didn’t think the witness was lying. They kept him on staff. And they simply barred Sandusky from bringing children to the facility. So once Sandusky was out of sight, his crimes were out of mind.
Obviously, the real horror here is in the alleged criminal conduct (and if you haven’t read the indictment of Sandusky — and have a strong stomach — you should look it up on the Internet).
But there’s a larger point to be made here. Several, actually. People keep saying the cover-up proves the corruption of college football. Maybe so. College football certainly has its myriad and manifest vices.
But what about the riots? These aren’t simply a product of football culture, they’re a product of a campus culture that teaches students they have an absolute right to whatever their hearts desire, starting with a fun-filled college experience and, afterwards, a rewarding career.
Yes, Jonah, and there is another troubling factor that underlies these types of riots--the lack of respect for the property of others. Even when the property belongs to people who had nothing to do with the issue being protested. Even when the property belongs to those who would be helpers of the issue. This is a part of the entitlement mentality of those who never got beyond the "Mine! MINE!" stage of development. It is this aspect of riots that should most concern us as a nation and as a civilization. The loss of respect for the concept of private property.
But... somehow I enjoyed seeing the picture of the TV truck turned over (I hope they burnt it). The lamestream media has so much to account for in destroying the moral foundation that would have made the students more respectful of other's property that somehow it just seems... right... that their truck got totalled out.
Probably a little like the difficulty I have in getting too excited about MP3 copies stealing bread right out of the mouth of rock stars...
Your comment should be the topic of another column...
The media NEEDS to be held accountable for their part in the degradation of our country and society. (Thanks a lot for all of that in-depth vetting of Obama, Fourth Estate!)
Words can hurt. I saw it on "Two and a Half Men" the other night.
What else were rubber bullets and water cannon invented for, if not for that ridiculous, childish display of lunacy at Penn State the other night?
One issue I'll take with this piece, Jonah - those vices so clearly on display by the students on Tuesday are most definitely *not* learned; they are ingrained in each of us. Our society has given up on making us better men, and instead panders to our basest instincts. And this is the result. There was a time when an education that meant anything would teach these ruffians why their behavior is reprehensible and wrong; now all is relative and who are we to judge Junior's disgusting displays of selfishness?
"Obviously, the real horror here is in the alleged criminal conduct (and if you haven’t read the indictment of Sandusky — and have a strong stomach — you should look it up on the Internet).
"But there’s a larger point to be made here."
Ok, what point? That we have a university culture that covers this up, that allows it to happen? That society turns its back on this most vile offense? What's the larger point?
"Ok, what point? That we have a university culture that covers this up, that allows it to happen? That society turns its back on this most vile offense? What's the larger point?
Oh -- college students are narcissistic brats."
Do you mean to say that the university society turns its back or society in general?
Are the rioting students narcissistic brats?
Is there any connection between a university culture that considers football more important than child safety and the prevalence of student rioting?
Do you have a point to make here and if so what is it?
I think the larger point is the bizarre, inverted, moral sensibilities of these students who riot because a campus legend is fired rather than riot because another campus icon who apparently was molesting children and was not immediately brought to justice. Well, that and the propensity to riot rather than give the matter rational thought, which is, after all, the asserted purpose of a university education. On another subject, I think your comments lately are more substantive and thoughtful than they'd frequently been in the past. Cudos.
Roger, clearly Jonah's points are good ones, but how the heck do you raise them as derivative of the horror?
The answer is: you don't. You do a column about students being narcissistic brats who riot. They riot here. They riot there. They even riot in the midst of the horror that is the Penn State scandal. What you don't do is say, in effect, "The Penn State scandal is horrible beyond description, and that brings up another point . . . . "
Roger, something just hit me -- a sorta wild theory. Imagine for a minute that Jonah's column was aiming toward a conclusion to the effect that the narcissistic, spoiled-brat attitude creates a culture that facilititates a "me-first" attitude which, in turn, makes looking away from the likes of the horror that is this scandal just a bit easier. Then imagine that Jonah says to himself, "Wait a minute -- I could write that, but I would get pilloried for it." So he deep-sixes the last two or three paragraphs he'd originally written and veers off into nowhere-land. That would explain how the column reads.
I liked the column. I think the bigger issue - the values and attitudes we're raising many of our children with - might be too big for a column. Needs more like a book. I think the last thing anyone could say about Mr. Goldberg is that he'd shy away from writing something out of cowardice.
I mostly don't disagree with your point. However, that JN didn't focus like a laser on it is not necessarily an indication that he also doesn't agree. Rather, JN chose this opportunity to write about the riots and those involved. It's just a column. To touch on every point - your's being a legitimate one - would take at least two columns, or perhaps a book.
At least they turned over a news van. The news media's outrage and hand wringing has been difficult to stomach this past week. And yes I've read the report, so save your sanctimony.
I guess the students did not notice they fired the university President as well, that the cypher who was an eyewitness didn't run to get his gun to shoot the perp but told his dad and that's all he thought he needed to do, that their football opponents this weekend have requested increased security. What is this, the 1960's at Ole Miss or something? Call out the federal troops! Does it occur to these students that PSU might now stand for Pervert State University, or Pedophile, or Pederasty? Sandusky is like the drunken lout of a fraternity brother who is always introduced with the caveat, "he's really nice when he's not drunk." Yep, Sandusky's are real NAMBLA man. What adult watches a 10-year-old boy being sodomized without doing something about it? I can't imagine. How would you like to be one of the "men" who shared the locker room with those coaches? "Did you ever see anything?" they might be asked. How about it NFLers? Got any dirt you want to share? For God's sake, its not like someone was cheating on a test, boys. These aren't men, what is the explanation for their inaction? Cowardice comes to mind.
And the fact that McQueary is employed as an assistant PSU coach after cravenly and cowardly turning his back on a 10 year old boy being raped is reprehensible.
My daughter is a student at Penn State. This is a campus of 40,000 students, the vast majority of whom did not engage in rioting. It is wrong to indict the community of students for the actions of a few. They are not responsible for the actions of their leadership, which clearly failed to act in a horrific situation.
While Jonah is right to point out that the students who protested Paterno's firing were being, well, stupid -- I think that there is a generalization going on here that needs to be addressed.
Media reports that I have seen estimate that there were between two and three thousand students protesting/rioting earlier this week. However, I wonder if Mr. Goldberg and others who criticize Penn State students realize just how many students live and study at University Park? (just shy of 40,000 for fall 2011)
I think that generally, college students have a propensity to protest (how do you like that alliteration?) because many of them are looking for a 'cause' to support. And, generally speaking, students who riot are doing so as a "preferred response to inconvenience".
BUT, in the case of the riots at Penn State earlier this week, the VAST MAJORITY of students were, well... doing something else. Many were planning candle-light vigils for the alleged victims of Sandusky. Others were simply studying.
I think that when folks with a large platform are offering opinions about the student body at Penn State (or any other institution of higher education), it behooves them to mention that most students were not acting like idiot.
Unfortunately, the rational, mature students rarely garner the big headlines.
Exactly right. That's the problem with so many articles about protest groups and riots-- people are apt to quote one or two people (or no one) and generalize to an entire group. The same applies to OWS. I'm no supporter of them, but we can't make sweeping generalizations about what everyone wants.
I can see your point, but 2000-3000 students is still about 5%-7.5% of the total population. The numbers don't make it seem like it, but that's really quite a lot.
As a comparison, imagine nationwide OWS participation was between 15 and 23 million angry citizens.
Maybe you're correct ; maybe not ... But how many of these same 18 to 25 year-old 'geniuses' (65 to 75 percent ?) helped to give us zippy , as our president ? Frank K . (N.Va.)
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