Joe Paterno....a parent's take

So I am having a bit of trouble with all the adulations of Joe Paterno. I feel sorry for Paterno's wife and his children and grandchildren who have all lost someone they loved very much. Yet, I find my stomach is a bit queasy over the outpouring of support for someone who played a part in the sexual abuse of a child. I read an article where Paterno said it wouldn't have mattered if he had been given more information about the abuse, because he couldn't understand the "rape of a man". Really, Joe? I find this hard to believe. You never heard the don't drop the soap jokes in your locker room? Saw the Shawshank Redemption? Read the news? Yet, in the same instance, he went on to say that if someone had touched his child or grandchildren, he would have gathered up a group of people and given the molester a bloody nose. His wife's take is more blunt: "If someone touched my child, there wouldn't be a trial, I would have killed them. That would be my attitude because you destroyed somebody for life. " Yet, Joe passed it on to the powers that be. And then sat back and DID NOTHING FURTHER ABOUT IT. No phone calls. No check ins. Nothing. And that is the part that troubles me that most. This man, who supposedly instilled accountability in his players, did not follow up with his higher ups because he "didn't know which way to go. So rather than get in there in make a mistake...." Let's finish this, shall we? Rather than taint the reputation of his school, he didn't follow up on the abuse of a child. Where are the ethics that Joe constantly hammered home to his players? Joe continues to live his life while this child (and the others molested by Sandusky) are relegated to a life of shame and fear and pain. I feel no sympathy for Joe Paterno. My sympathy lies with the victims....the children who could have been protected had he followed his own code of ethics and spoken up. The outpourings of love and support make me ask....what if it was your brother? Your son? Your child? Would you still be continuing to idolize this man who basically tossed your loved aside? The out of touch grandpa act just doesn't cut it for me. After receiving the phone call that Paterno had been fired, his wife called back the trustee and snapped that Paterno "deserved better." Paterno was not the victim and he did not deserve better simply because he was a winning football coach....a man who got paid to coach a game....a man who's wins brought in millions of dollars for a university. No. The children who were abused deserved better. And they were failed in epic proportions.