In another thread, RfM poster "forbiddencokedrinker" made the following suggestion:

"O/T Is there anyway we can petition Penn State to remove the Joe Paterno statue they put up a few months back?

"Thing should be toppled and smashed with hammers, like the statue of a tyrant after the rebels have toppled the country."

(posted by "forbiddencokedrinker," RfM bulletin board, 13 July 2012, at: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,562369,562369#msg-562369)
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Actually, I think Paterno deserves his statue:

http://i.azcentral.com/i/E/4/2/PHP500209B19F24E.jpg



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2012 11:18PM by steve benson.

I agree whole-heartedly with your cartoon, Steve. The cover-up by the Penn State leadership is a perfect example of the dark side of groupish behavior.

CNN has run a story about the Penn State culture that is worth paying attention to, also.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/15/us/triponey-paterno-penn-state/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

There are striking similarities between the dark side of the Penn State culture and the dark side of Mormonism. I was particularly struck by this quote:

"The culture is making decisions based on how others will react, not based on what's right and wrong." It focused on the interests of those at "the top of the chain," she added. "Others at the bottom didn't matter."

Steve,

It seems like there is a perfect opportunity at the moment to lay out for the national media the similarities between Sandusky's activities as a pedophile and Joseph SMith's activities.

I noticed you posted a lot of information about JS and his sexual activities, maybe you're the guy. It needs to be somebody with a rational voice and a lot of knowledge about the history of the church. The media spotlight on the church is intense right now so it's the right time to do it.

People need to hear about the foundation of the church, I'm sure the will find it repulsive. What do you think? You seem to have a great opportunity based on what you do.

Steve, your Paterno statue cuts like a double edged sword. It's very funny and tragic too. The idea that something as ephemeral as a sports trophy would justify the invasion of the bodies of the innocent is an indictment of modern humanity.

What a parallel to Joe Smith wading through the young female flesh on his path to glory!

Your work is admired from afar, Steve.

Darn it Steve, your one of the few people I don't mind proving me wrong from time to time.

BTW, I think the whole problem of this case is a perfect example of people wanting to place nonliving institutions ahead of the suffering of real breathing people.

One thing that really bugs me is how the Penn State crap has hit the fan but the BYU scandal of the same nature (except involving the board of trustees top dawgs; and not the BYU campus) hasn't hit the news. A few years before we know that the Penn State administrators were covering up for Jerry Sandusky I know that the LDS top leadership did the same for a child molester Bishop who was quietly ex'ed for molesting youth in his Ward but it was so covered up that not all the parents ever knew what happened. Then a friend of mine was in a unit leadership position a few years later and one of the kids in that ward was now an adult and came in for counseling with my friend the unit leader and told my friend everything, including how a GA visited from Salt Lake to absolve the youth of sin and help them keep hush about what happened in order to protect the church's reputation. Now the young adult wanted to talk to their parents and my friend called both parents and arranged a time an hour later when the parents would be together in order for them to talk to their adult child. In the meantime the leader called the church headquarters hotline and explained the situation. Within 10 minutes Thomas S. Monson (now chairman of the BYU board of trustees) called back telling this leader to make sure the young adult didn't talk to parents. My friend disobeyed, young adult talked to parents, parents called police, investigation occurred, and ex-Bishop was convicted. In retaliation Monson attended a meeting of the Twelve and told the quorum's acting President (named Boyd) to start excommunication proceedings on disobedient leader who failed to obstruct justice per order of Monson. Acting Quorum President obeyed and put this action at the top of agenda. Then one of the Apostles stood and told quorum that he agreed with action of unit leader and that if they ex'ed unit leader then they'd need to ex this Apostle too. As a result the quorum dropped the matter. Shortly thereafter the unit leader got a personal call from Monson's boss GBH now deceased letting him know he was released and gave him a veiled threat that discipline could come if he didn't keep quiet. So he was released but the coverupers (all of the FP/12) at that time did nothing to come clean about their own coverup in obstructing justice for several years. In fact none of them ever resigned for their role on this and most of them are still in the FP/12. I was pretty shocked when my friend (who was the unit leader) told me about this event. I wish he'd come forward yet I can see why he doesn't considering the ill treatment that whistleblowers get in the world. But I'm guessing that someday he will come forward. Unbeknownst to me at the time the conversation that my friend and I had (over the internet) was fully recorded by the website we were using and though I'm quite computer systems savvy I have no idea how to go about getting the conversation deleted. I recently reviewed the transcript and once again was taken aback in thinking about how hard that moment of time must have been for my friend. He probably wouldn't like me sharing this here at RfM as if the LDS snoops are watching they'd probably figure this situation out. However if they were to try to come after him on it then they'd only be exposing themselves and give him some serious retaliation ammunition for how their Monson (now a holy prophet) tried to get him to obstruct justice for them, and then get him ex'ed for not obeying this order to obstruct in order to protect the church's reputation at the expense of preventing a child molester from facing real justice. In fact my message to such LDS snoops is this - you know very well how easy it is to figure out who I am, where I live, and I affirm the fact that I have ample assets to be hurt really badly monetarily and that I'd be a decent target for a small defamation lawsuit. Nevertheless I'm not scared of LDS inc. on this. If anything LDS inc.'s apologists ought to be grossly ashamed of what they're doing on this matter.

Thanks, steve benson.

. . . have been astoundingly primitive, uninformed and typical of gridlocked gridiron groupthink.

Their issue, of course, shouldn't be with a cartoonist who is merely commentating on the facts of the case; rather, it should be with the scathing 287-page report on the matter authored by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh (and commissioned by the Penn State Board of Trustees), which found the following, as reported by the "New York Times":

"The [Penn State] football program, Mr. Freeh reported, chose not to participate in most of the university’s efforts to train people in recognizing and reporting violence and sexual abuse.

“'Unfortunately, there are other universities like this, but it’s fewer than in the past, and I think the publicity around this case is helping change things,' said Alison Kiss, executive director of the Clery Center for Security on Campus, founded by Jeanne Clery’s parents.

“'In our experience, when an athlete or coach is involved, many times it does get treated differently,' she said. 'We have to change that culture.'

"A Pennsylvania law requires certain officials to report suspected child abuse to state agencies. A former Penn State senior vice president, Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Tim Curley face criminal charges under that statute, along with charges of perjury.

"The episode involved occurred in 2001, when a graduate assistant coach, Mike McQueary, reported that Mr. Sandusky had sexually assaulted a boy in a locker room shower. Whether or not Mr. Spanier understood the nature of the charge, e-mails uncovered by Mr. Freeh show that Mr. Spanier, Mr. Schultz and Mr. Curley agreed to report the episode to the state child welfare agency.

"But they did not. Mr. Curley suggested a different approach after 'talking it over with Joe' Paterno. Mr. Freeh quoted an unnamed senior official as calling Mr. Curley the 'errand boy' of Mr. Paterno.

"The impression that Mr. Paterno had more power than the officials ostensibly above him is not new. In 2004, Mr. Spanier and Mr. Curley — who, in theory, could fire the coach at will — told Mr. Paterno he should retire; Mr. Paterno refused to go, and that ended the discussion."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/sports/ncaafootball/in-freeh-report-on-sandusky-failures-throughout-penn-state.html?pagewanted=all



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2012 02:34PM by steve benson.

Reading that makes your image all the more poignant. Thank you.

BTW Steve, I am posting that cartoon on my facebook.

Steve,

The finest cartoon I've seen on the issue thus far. Honestly.