I guess I see it this way. Sandusky is like a rabid dog. I have no problem with a rabid dog being put down (though I would cry forever if he were mine), and I have no problem with Sandusky being institutionalized forever. But, in part, Sandusky's problem is likely due to a genetic or psychiatric short-circuit in his brain that he may not have full cognitive responsibility for. When I hear Sandusky's interviews or read his public statements, I cringe and want to vomit. But there's a part of me that also cringes because he doesn't seem to see what's wrong. Unlike everyone else above him who seem to have been driven by the PR "lets spin this and minimize/avoid the damage" mentality, Sandusky comes off not so much as someone who denies his actions as someone who thinks those actions were out of love. Sandusky, IMO, has done evil things that need severe punishment of the sort he has been meted by the court system and the court of public opinion. But he's also clearly sick and not right and the head.
Whereas with Paterno and the rest of the Penn State muckety-mucks, they made a conscious decision to cover-up. To try to manipulate that court of public opinion. Whereas Sandusky should have known better, but didn't, they knew better. And still did what they did.
That, IMO, DOES make them worse in very real sense.
Yes, Sandusky did horrible things and greatly traumatized young people who should never have to be so traumatized. Sandusky's illness should not absolve him of the punishment he gets. But its the manipulative, unconscionable actions of people like Paterno, Schultz, Curley, and Spanier, and how they affect the actions like those of the people below them all the way down to the janitors, that ensure that the victims of child sexual abuse are not just traumatized, but traumatized for life far to an extent far greater than they have to be.
Originally Posted by: wade