Monday Madness- "It Wasn't THAT Bad?"

Generally, dear readers, we try to keep a light tone here at Macaroni and Chicken Fingers. With everything that life can throw at you, infusing humor in the day is one of the best ways to deal with it. However, after watching a Sunday morning expose, the first of what I am certain will be many on this topic, I cannot keep silent. 


By now, you are probably well aware of the happenings at Penn State. Head of Athletics, Jerry Sandusky has been accused of "inappropriate conduct" with young boys. While the grad student who discovered it reported it to Joe Paterno, who reported it to the higher level administration, where it was not correctly dealt with until an area high school brought forward allegations and blew the cover of Penn State administration. What sickens me is the statement by one of the people in the chain of reporting at Penn State saying,"He grabbed the boy's private area but it wasn't that bad."


SERIOUSLY?!?!?! What kind of man views an older man taking advantage of a child in a sexual manner and says,"It wasn't that bad"? He needs to be slapped. And then some!


Every time I see something on the news about this, I get sick to my stomach. I wonder things like: Was all of Sandusky's charitable work simply to feed his demented appetite? Will I have to wonder that about anyone in my children's community? I mean, my son is prime age for this... ages 9 to 11. How many other boys and families has he done this to that will not come forward? We know of eight, but how many more?


I once sat on the jury of a murder case. A young girl, age 12 at the time of the occurrence, was laying in bed while a teen boy neighbor of the girl's family came into her room. She was asleep and the teen boy made some inappropriate physical contact with her. He did not rape her, not even close. I remember at the time, the prosecuting attorney said,"Yes, he touched her, but it wasn't that bad." Apparently it was bad enough for the girl's brother to wait for that boy to come home and beat him to death. (To be fair, the intent on the brother's part was not murder, but to send a strong message to the boy not to touch his sister again.) What the prosecuting attorney said sickened me then, just as this case sickens me now. And while I know that what that girl's brother did was wrong, I can't say I fault him for it. Yes, I believe strongly in forgiveness, and I work toward it everyday, I believe in consequences as well. Because if that was my boy, you could bet I would be thinking of ways to inflict the most horrific punishment known upon the person who would dare to cross the line. 


Yours, wondering what this whole Penn State thing will come to,


Melissa