Overboard.

Jen Rubin would do better to stick to covering politicians, not sports. She simply doesn't get it here:

Many are calling for Paterno to be fired. That’s the least that should occur. The dilemma remains: After the legal process finishes with those subject to criminal sanctions, how does Penn State atone? On one level it cannot restore to the children whose lives were ruined what was taken from them. There’s no apology that would suffice; no civil settlement that could reverse the damage.

This is the very definition of corruption — the “impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle : depravity.” And for that, the solution, it seems, must be to excise that corruption from the body of the university and reestablish the purpose and virtue of the institution. End the football program. Let the recruits go elsewhere. Level the stadium or better yet, let it decay and crumble and be an eyesore, a fitting metaphor for the program that was suffused with moral rot.

The notion that the university serves the football program should be pulled out by the roots. The university should in essence declare that henceforth there will be no confusing the priorities of the institution.

Oh, but the poor players! The athletes who wouldn’t go to college! Nonsense. There are other schools, other teams. College football will survive without Penn State, and Penn State, if it’s more than an excuse for a football team, will survive without football. And if Penn State serves as a permanent reminder ( “Why is it they have no football program?” they may ask decades from now) to those tempted to abuse power, abdicate moral responsibility or lie in pursuit of football victories, then a football-less Penn State would render some service, however paltry compared to the harm it has caused.

If what has been reported is true, what other action could be contemplated? And who in good conscience could watch and cheer a program that trampled on so many innocents for so little, for nothing other than pride and greed?

Oh no. You've got your sites set on the wrong target. Hold your fire! Blame the transgressor, Jen. The actual alleged rapist. That's Sandusky. You don't go on a broad sweep of all those affected, and implicate other innocents (like the athletes, the football "program" as a whole, the ... sport) in your call for collective punishment.

This is hysteria, Jen. Not needed here. Target the "solution" to the specific criminal acts that occured. Why do women especially tend to lose their heads and get overly dramatic when sex and young children are involved?

I suspect, for some, they equate the ... drama, the passion, their heartfelt outrage at what was allowed to happen to these children with making things better for others in the future.

Except ... shutting down Penn State's football progam as a whole, to atone for the crimes and sins committed by one man, who allegedly was preying off his own organization and using the campus and tickets as a luxury goodie bag to entice the youngsters, while others looked away in horror, simply doesn't "fix" anything now or in the future. Not a narrowly tailored solution.

Wish that it would only be that easy, Jen. But collective punishment, "easy" solutions, and quick fixes for cultures and mindsets that were formed over generations rarely take with just verbal vitriol and lip service for that powerful Change word.

Aren't you paying any attention to the world revolving around you there in Washington? Haven't you learned anything in days of late? The power of the pen counts, for sure, but it's gotta be backed up with more... WAY more than simply calling for eliminating a football program as a serious form of punishment. Real life actions. That's what's still missing these days, you know. Too much talk, too much drama, not enough grinding out the honest victories in life.

We'll get there, Jen. The hard way.
If not us, generations still evolving...