Thank You, Joe

I got home from church and lunch, and the news feeds tell me Joe Paterno has died.  Such a sad thing, that he should pass with all this turmoil around him, from the realization that it's actually likely that an assistant coach of his was a true pervert to the board of Penn State offering him up as a scapegoat.

To the board:  You don't get any points from me for having the "guts" to fire Joe Paterno.   I am convinced that you did it in order to try to make a statement along the lines of "Look, we fired the great Joe Paterno, if we would do that, we MUST be the good guys."  You are not good guys.  You are knee-jerking jerks.

To Joe, if he were here to read this:  Thank you, sir, for putting honor first as much as you humanly could over that long, long career.  Thank you for not covering up that we are all human, and sometimes fail, and that the right answer to that is to get up and go again.  Thank you for standing for values that most of the world think are too old fashioned to even consider.

To Joe's family:  I hope and pray I speak the same feelings that the overwhelming majority of Americans feel.  Joe Pa was a man among men, who reminded all of us, year after year, that living honorably was the same living today as it was a long time ago; for showing us that honor does not change with public appetites.  We will miss him, and what he stood for, because it is extremely rare to find anyone who will stand as he did, especially in the public eye.  We are sad for you, and I am pretty sure most of us would take some of your sorrow off your shoulders, if such a thing were possible.  Please know that no one who understood the honor that Joe lived thinks that he hid anything. 

To Joe's detractors:  Believe what you wish, but based on years and years and years of demonstrated honor, I believe that Coach Paterno told the highest campus cop (the administrator that is in charge of the campus police).  To believe otherwise is to believe that a man turned against a lifetime of decency, honesty, and honor.  I know it is convenient for many of you to make that argument, because it helps you to break down the barriers that have existed since time immemorial to your desired behavior, but your convenience isn't a speck of dust on the globe of honor built up by the Coach.  So shut up.

-Al
(a 56 year WVU fan, for what that's worth)