A Broken Heart

I've read my share of romance stories by Jane Austen and the Brontes, so I'm familiar with the concept of a broken heart and the possibility that such an affliction could result in death. I'd never taken it very seriously, however. I mean, really??

But today I was driving home when I heard on the news that Joe Paterno had died. The official cause of death was lung cancer. But you and I both know he really died of a broken heart, don't we? Shunned by all he had held so dear, what was there left to live for?

I never met the man, but I don't think you had to have met him to know he was a proud, proud man. And he certainly had a right to be. His career had broken so many records. How sad that he couldn't have retired and then passed from this disease that undoubtedly was eating away at him still proud at all he had accomplished. But that was all taken away from him.

Do I think he messed up? Yeah, I do. I think he made a mistake in that he had could have followed up better on the information he reported to his school's administrators. And if he didn't get a satisfactory answer from them, he had the power and the moral obligation to go to the authorities and tell them he thought something wasn't right. But I also think he was a man of his word. If he said he was going to do something, then he did it. And people like that, especially from his generation, tend to assume that if someone tells them a thing will be done, then it will be. And he trusted people who told him they'd check into the matter and that it had properly been addressed.

Instead, those with the real responsibility tried to sweep the evil under the rug. But evil like that can't be so easily quieted. And when it reared up again, it swept up with it everyone in the vicinity, and that included Joe Paterno. It crushed him and it killed him. His heart not just broken, but shattered. He could not go on.

So who's in the dog pile today? Those Penn State officials who fired him. Those to whom he had reported the information about the abuse who did not pursue it certainly should have been fired. But Joe was just the last link in the "Off with their heads" bloodletting.

Do you know who's not in the dog pile? The students of Penn State. Not the ones who responded with rioting, although I certainly understand the cause of their overflowing emotion. But those students who rallied and protested and who went to Paterno's home to show their support. They were the only people who stood by the man who had brought such glory to their institution for many years. How often it seems to me that the young people are the ones with the courage to see the truth of a situation and try to rectify a problem. But they have little power. And those with the power tell them to go away and behave themselves.

I'd like to say Rest in Peace, Joe. But I don't think that's going to be your final fate. I honestly don't expect that even death will bring you the solace you deserve.