“This is a business decision disguised as a morality decision”- Chris Fowler
“Dope on the damm table?”- Lt. Daniels
The above quote is from the greatest show in television history; The Wire. It means literally what you think it does but what it represents on the show is far more important. You see in Season 1 of the show a cop gets shot. The higher ups in the police department decide to blow a long term wire tap investigation and take down the criminals in question immediately. They are going to raid the stash houses, make arrests and “put the dope on the table” to show the drug dealers they mean business. In reality it’s all for show, a less than stellar plan that will be a good photo op for the newspapers but will accomplish nothing. You see in the world of drug dealing, there will always be more drugs. The dope on the table represents but a small percentage of the world’s drugs. It is all for show, but it’s how lieutenants become captains and captains become sergeants so it is done despite not actually fixing any real problems.
Joe Paterno’s firing is dope on the table. You can’t tell me that anything will be better for it. Happy Valley will not become a safer place, those poor children will not feel relief and nothing will really change. Every one with a social media outlet has given their opinion on this topic for the last 5 days but I have yet to hear anyone even suggest what is going to be done going forward to fix this. I haven’t heard of one measure put in place to insure this never happens again.
The following is an excerpt from the court transcript on the case. The alleged encounter took place in 1998 years before the alleged incident on the Penn State campus
Detective Ronald Schreffler testifies that he and State College Police Department Detective Ralph Ralston, with the consent of the mother of Victim 6, eavesdrop on two conversations the mother of Victim 6 has with Sandusky. Sandusky says he has showered with other boys and Victim 6′s mother tries to make Sandusky promise never to shower with a boy again but he will not. At the end of the second conversation, after Sandusky is told he cannot see Victim 6 anymore, Schreffler testifies Sandusky says, “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you.
Please tell me how this happened and NOTHING came of it. Once the phrase “showered with young boys” is said that should be it. WTF happened here that this man didn’t end up in jail? Where’s the moral outrage for the local police department, the victim’s mother or Pennsylvania child services?
It doesn’t exist because it doesn’t sell newspapers and it doesn’t generate internet page views. Questioning the decision making of a local police department gets you the 8th lead on msn.com. But attacking a local legend, an institution, a man who built his reputation on “honor”, well that gets you the lead and that gets your story picked up on other websites and that gets you a guest spot on Bill O’Reilly.
Don’t think for a second that I am condoning what happened or the actions taken by everyone involved including Joe Paterno because I’m not. He didn’t do enough, plain and simple. But what should have been a story about one terrible human being and the litany of people who didn’t stop him along the way instead became a witch hunt. Joe Paterno became the face of this scandal somehow and that’s not right. But he was the biggest name and getting on your high horse and condemning a man for “not doing enough”, all the while hiding behind this misguided idea of “morality” is an easy rode to take. Nobody can criticize you for fear of it being mistaken for support of what happened.
The world is not that black and white, but grey areas don’t make for good headlines. So in the end the lesson is that actually inviting change and fixing a problem isn’t as important as making sure the public perceives that you are doing so. So we tear down good people and we put dope on the table all “for the children” and that’s how Lieutenants become Captains and journalists become higher paid journalists.
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