Do The Right Thing

"Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. " -Viktor E. Frankl

I am finding it hard to understand what I am hearing in the news lately. Now granted it is unlikely that I can know what is in another person's heart. Also know that I'm really working hard not to get judgemental about what I am going to say here.

The story surrounding what happened around and on the grounds of the Penn State football facilities is horrifying enough. A sexual predator destroying the lives of eight or nine young boys that we know of. It will be very hard and a long process for those young men to go through in recovering from his sordid actions.

What bothers me also are the actions, or in-action of people that could have stopped him sooner. As far back as 1998 there were people that could have done something. Recently a head football coach, a man that leads college-aged men onto a playing field, teaching them to do the right things in life, didn't do that. He simply told a higher authority in the college and then washed his hands of it.

These were horrible, despicable and illegal activities; informing legal authorities was the responsible thing to do. Now we have the uncovering of a supposed cover-up and even more grief for the young boys that were molested. The sexual predator has been arrested, the head football coach says he will retire at the end of the season.

The right thing to do happened though, he was fired along with the University President by the University Board of Trustees. No more leading men onto the field of play, no more roles in being responsible for their success due to his failure to be responsible. That has taken away any privilege he may have felt or wanted in retiring on his own terms. He lost that when he failed to do the right thing.

This story is not one that I want to make all about a football coach losing his job. The story is about those boys molested by a man entrusted that did very irresponsible things. The lives harmed could have been limited if others had done the right thing. By choosing wrong, even more lives have been altered and harmed as well.

We don't always get it right, that I get. Each of us have choices to make in life. Sometimes those choices are right and sometimes we make the wrong ones. If we hide things in the dark, they only fester like an open wound, never to experience true healing.

In the end, we must do what is right, what is responsible and what will move life forward.