There are signs downtown: “Proud to support Penn State Football.” There are students in classrooms, on street corners, and in the Opinion page of The Daily Collegian still polarized by Jerry Sandusky’s horrifying molestations.
The tragedy, however, lives on as the conversations are not ones about future prevention, community betterment or consolation for those who were harmed in this monstrosity.
Upon reading the letter “It is important to defend Penn State’s legacy” and recent editorial “Don’t let extreme voices speak for all of Penn State,” I was stunned by the vacuum of original thought and misguided focus still circulating State College.
Why are the young minds of this town are still concerned with their university’s image? The cover-up of this crime — which was an attempt to salvage public image, after all — was perhaps the most disgusting layer in Penn State’s handling of Sandusky’s reign of terror.
Why continue this line of thought?
I am proud of my university, sure, but the fervent obsession with advocating that Penn State is “not so bad” is counterproductive. As a community, we need to take responsibility and move on.
On the window outside the State College Community Help Centre on Beaver Avenue, there was at one time a sign that read: “Proud to support the victims.”
It seems to me that this is the route to healing — considerable empathy, an attempt to reach out to those hurt. A year later, discussions should be preventative, concerned with improving our community — not finger-pointing, not attempts at saving face.
Nicholas Miller
senior - film/video and English
