My Take On Penn State

So, I'm a fiction writer. I write thrillers with sinister characters that do really evil deeds. My imagination has to create senarios that are implausibly plausible if that makes sense. One storyline I attempted a long time ago dealt with child pornography and even skirting around the issue, I found it difficult. I couldn't do it and ended up changing it to human trafficking where I take great satisfaction in who gets saved and how the villain gets it in the end (yet to be published).

So, this thing with Penn State comes to light. I'm a big LSU Tiger's fan, which means I'm a fan of all college football and it makes me sick to think football is the reason this was kept quiet. But, I'm not going to make commentary on what's been rehashed in the news hourly for the past week, but there is one thing I keep coming back to.

This Mcqueary is a good sized man. He was a football player. He had a chance to be this kid's hero. He walked into an opportunity that gave him free reign to bust this guy up. If I wrote him as a character, I would really have to develop either a detachment, a cold persona, or some childhood tragedy of his own to make it believable. Is it self preservation? Is it the mighty hand of Penn State football? It's crazy. Get in front of it, practice the HONOR that you preach, take the dent to the program and move forward, knowing you upheld your ideals. What the F????

How do you walk away from what Mcqueary described? I put myself in his place and after I get over how sureal the scene must have been, I run in there, pull the kid away from Sandusky (who will hopefully be in the prison's general population) and proceed to beat the crap out of him. Maybe he gets the better of me, maybe he doesn't. Either way, I kick and punch for every child that has ever been taken advantage of. Do I see myself leaving, distraught, telling my boss and then wiping my hands of it? No, I don't see that.

At least pull out your phone and call the police...at least! The only good that will come from this is that bringing to the public's attention what SHOULD have happened. The next person in this situation may think about handling it differently.

You should have been that boy's hero, Mcqueary. How many chances do we get at that?