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Okay, as everyone knows, Jerry Sandusky has been found guilty of 45 out of 48 counts of child sex abuse. I feel that Sandusky was almost certainly guilty and belongs in prison. However, I feel that the trial was way too short to be considered anything close to "justice". One argument is that the trial needed to be short to ease the pain of the victims and their families. But their pain hasn't stopped many families from letting their hate get the best of them. But that's all besides the point. Somehow the prosecution was able to convince 12 "objective" jury members that Sandusky was guilty of 45 allegations in 8 days. If you break it down statistically, that means that the prosecution proved one allegation about every hour that the trial took place.
The amazing thing about this country is that, in theory, our judicial system assumes that a person is innocent unless proven to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So even a man like Sandusky, who is almost certainly guilty of one if not all of the things in which he was accused, gets a fair trial and a chance to prove himself innocent. The unfortunate part is that judgement is what it all comes down to, and given enough time and evidence, you could practically convince anybody of anything. So if the defense had had more time to form their case, Sandusky would have only been found guilty of a fraction of those allegations.
But that's just my theory... I'm frustrated that the trial was so fast and so extremely one-sided. That has nothing to do with Sandusky's actual guilt.
The problem I see is that this whole thing turned into a witch hunt the moment that the news broke. Sure, we're talking about bringing justice to men who were sexually assaulted as children, and that is an extremely taboo subject, but that does not give anyone the right to go around attacking anyone that they believe to be part of the problem.
Joe Paterno was killed by the Penn State Board of Trustees. It's as simple as that. Not only was his image used as the face of the entire scandal by the press, but he was disgraced and brought to shame by the school that he had devoted 61 years of service to by individuals who were more guilty of covering up evidence than he ever was. Many of those individuals still have their jobs, and more importantly, their lives. Mike McQueary, the man who was the key witness in what Joe Paterno may or may not have reported to the police still has his job with Penn State. Who's more guilty in that case? Joe Pa took the fall because everyone knew his name and Penn State was desperate. I commend the students who protested against their own school over what happened.
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"Do what's right, not what's popular."
That statement can be rephrased in a thousand different ways to mean the same thing. Basically, it not uncommon for a group of people to be doing something that's wrong without realizing or caring. It doesn't feel wrong because of the way our social mentality works as human beings. It's extremely easy to feel comfortable with something just by quickly verifying that you're not the only one. Bullying is very often a result of this behavior. I site the recent video that has surfaced of a bus monitor being bullied by a bus full of kids. If you haven't watched the video, do so, and prey that you can't remember a time when you were one of those bullies!!!
In the Sandusky case, I feel that people are resulting to bullying without even realizing it. The issues are disturbing to many people and being upset about everything is pretty much the only way that anyone can feel. However, when you're being a bully, you're not upset. When someone is being a bully, they're enjoying themselves. You're often ganging up with other people in order to confront something you dislike for whatever reason. It's a way of making yourselves feel better through the immediate approval of others around you.
When I saw Sandusky's lawyer take the mic on the night after the verdict was given, I was watching a crowd of bullies! Sandusky's lawyer had done nothing wrong except take part in a system that, according to almost everyone in that crowd, had worked. Somebody had to be Sandusky's lawyer. It's the only way that the system can works! The crowd, surprisingly, never openly booed the man, but several times resorted to cheering his failures and many individuals ended up yelling at him and interrupting him while he spoke. This was not a sporting event! This was not anywhere that cheers were acceptable! Should people be happy that Sandusky was found guilty? Sure, but justice is not about making each other feel better by punishing someone who you feel did something wrong. THAT is known as bullying.
Thank you for reading.
PS: sorry for the length and any editing errors. It's 2:30am, I've done the best editing that I could at the moment but I need sleep. So I'm gonna publish this and then re-read tomorrow morning.
