I have been thinking about this blog topic for about a week now, trying to find the direction that I would go with. Then while I’m thinking about the comment by the new President of Penn State stating that the school will “not only do what is required under the law, we will do what is right” This weekend I realized that this entire scandal killed Joe Pa. It seems to me that the man who so many referred to as Coach wished he could go back and change what he had done or not done. This man who was a father to thousands of young men over his forty plus years at Penn State did what was required by law. The question is did he do what was right? As I thought more and more about this I was also looking at my schools fall 2011 Sol data. Then it hit me. Doing what the law requires is what is right, just like scoring a 400 on an Sol is passing. It is the minimum needed to pass of do what is right. You can do more. With an Sol you can score a passed advanced. When you not only do what is required but do what is right you get a passed advanced score.
What is my reaction to the statement you might ask? I feel that he is absolutely right, we should always do what is right, not just what is required. I think that as a person in the public eye, you are held to a higher standard, unless your a big money pro athlete who gets away with anything the normal person would not. You are expected to demonstrate the highest moral character. Joe Pa, for years was seen as a man among men, did what was required. If he had scored a passed advance he would not have stopped when he reported it and nothing happened, he would have gone further, but where would he have gone? I ask myself this, in school if I suspect child abuse I am required to alert social services. If they do nothing, I’ve done my job. Being right could be to go an confront the offending parent, but that could be dangerous to my health. So what do you do, do you keep calling? Who do you report Social Services to if they do nothing? I could go further, but where do you go, who do you call? I think that if that is all you did and something terrible happened you would feel horrible, as I believe Joe Pa felt, there would be that feeling of what if…. The challenge is to always score that passed advanced! To always do what is right in everything that we do, that however is easier said than done.
