Who is the Real Trustee?

This question, posed by Phil Knight, still stands to be answered. Today I got an email from the Penn State Board of Trustees. Why in the world they continue to dig themselves deeper in the hearts of true Penn Staters continues to amaze me. Why we are entrusting the good name of our university to those fools who continue to drag it through the mud goes beyond what I can fathom. My favorite parts...their complete slander of Graham Spanier, their further justification of the firing of Joe Paterno, their clarification of the now legendary phone call to end Joe's career, and the ever present lack of responsibility for their own contributions to this crisis.

I don't even really like Spanier and I'm offended for him. If the BoT truly believed that Spanier was so out of line in his leadership in the days preceding his firing...what took so long to get him out? And if the Grand Jury report states that Paterno/Spanier/Penn State has done nothing wrong or illegal, then what gives the BoT the right to say Spanier took insufficient action?

The illegitimacy of the Board of Trustees is most obvious between their first and second statements on Joe Paterno. The first deeming him a legend, a model of grace and generosity for other universities. The second blaming his poor leadership, his moral failures for the despair of the Penn State nation. When will the BoT take some personal responsibility? If we the alumni, the students, and the community rely on them for put the needs of our university first, to protect the integrity of Penn State, why didn't they know more about what Spanier was doing November 5-9, or what Sandusky was doing in the locker room, or more about the day to day procedures of the athletic department? Take some responsibility!

Finally, the phone call. Seriously? You're really going to say you couldn't make your way across campus, literally a 15 minute walk, to tell a man that had given 61 years, probably built the building you were sitting in, that you are firing him? Cowards, classless idiots. You couldn't face the media storm you put in front of an 85 year old's home to personally deliver that message? You are the moral compass that Penn State is supposed to look to now? I think not.

Like Sue Paterno said...he deserved better. And so do we.