To Non-Staters: Careful about that pointing finger...

Consider this information from childmolestationprevention.org:


"An estimated one in 20 teenage boys and adult men sexually abuse children, and an estimated one teenage girl or adult woman in every 3,300 females molests children. Although that's well over five million people, most families mistakenly believe that as far as molesters go, there has never been one in their family, and what's more, there never will be.


If we use the conservative estimate that two in every ten little girls and one in every ten little boys are victims (based on the population reported in the 1999 U.S. Census statistical abstract) well over three million children are victims.


Take a moment to think about that. Three million children is a staggering number of children. That's 46 National Football League stadiums packed with children who are, today, being sexually abused, and who believe they have no adult to go to for help."


These are horrifying numbers. The Penn State family is deeply disturbed to have one of our own be among those numbers.

But those outside our family should not be pompously mislead. 1 in 20 men, an estimated 5 million people who are molesters? You are foolish if you think there are no molesters at your university, your church, your country club, your neighborhood.

So, will you join us in this fight or just continue to hate?

Many have expressed outrage over the support we have shown each other. You have mocked us for saying you don't understand. Our Penn State family has 557,000 alumni and 94,000 current students. When a crisis comes, a true family circles the wagons and supports each other. If you don't understand that...well, you don't understand Penn State. We aren't naive, or blind, or ignoring what has happened.

But we are a family and we are so much more than football.

We are the 43rd best university worldwide, according to the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities.

We are the top-ranked university according to a 2010 Wall Street Journal survey of 479 corporate recruiters who were asked to identify "whose bachelor degree graduates were the best-trained and educated, and best able to succeed once hired."

We are THON, a student-run philanthropy which has raised more than $78 million for The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital (http://www.thon.org/)

We are #ProudPSUforRAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network) and we have raised over $255,000 in less than 3 days in support of victims.

We will continue to support the young men who have worked so hard to wear the Blue and White at Beaver Stadium. They have no culpability.

99.999% of us had nothing to do with this horrific crime. None of us are victims.

We are standing together to clean house, to support the victims, to stop abuse.

What are you doing...besides hating?

To All Non-Penn Staters

We know you don't understand. Generally, we don't try to explain. Unless you are a Buckeye or Fighting Irish, you probably don't get how an institution embeds itself in a student's life. And that is fine.

But right now, we want you to know this:

We are distraught and truly sickened by this horror perpetrated on young victims by a man who represented the Blue and White, and perpetuated by others at the University. We aren't blind followers who drink Blue Kool-Aid. We grieve for and with the victims and their families. We pray for them to find healing and peace and a way to live a good life.

We know that while many people had responsibility, the most visible one almost always goes down first. We are not disputing the need for this to happen.
We are not "defending" anything. We are simply crushed and heartbroken. This is not the Penn State we love, the Penn State that is part of our being.

What you know of Joe Paterno probably comes from television or magazine articles.

We know the man who has lived in the same McKee St house for decades. We have chatted with him as he walked to practice. We have eaten ice cream with him at the Creamery. We have studied in the new library wing his money helped build. We have visited the sports museum and spiritual center he also helped build. We have seen him cheering on other Penn State athletes. We know he loves Penn State as much as we do.

Some of our friends, brothers, husbands, sons have been privileged to put on the Blue and White uniform and listen to 100,000 fans in Beaver Stadium. We know how hard they have worked, how much time they have devoted, how many of them have been part of an excellent scholar/athlete legacy...and how much they love this man and this program.

We aren't stupid or naive. We know Joe Paterno has culpability. We know he could have made different choices - he admitted that. We don't think he is God or always perfect or saintly. But he is the greatest college football coach ever, and he is PSU family, and we don't want his exit to be like this.

WE ARE...not closing our eyes, ignoring reports, pretending this isn't a wretched occurrence.
WE ARE...angry that innocents would be violated under our care.
WE ARE...in support of appropriate punishment for every person involved.
WE ARE...demanding change to a system that would allow this.
WE ARE...not concerned if you do not understand our love and devotion.

WE ARE...PENN STATE proud and we will rise again.



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