• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Poll: Should the JoePa statue remain up?

Should the statue stay up?

  • Yes. He is a legend in football and it needs to stay up.

    Votes: 3 10.7%
  • No. It is a reminder of a permanent scar at Penn State, regardless of football.

    Votes: 25 89.3%

  • Total voters
    28

Gipper

Banned
DP Veteran
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
25,116
Reaction score
7,658
Location
Theoretical Physics Lab
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Libertarian - Right
The Freeh report is out, and it's grim. It shows that several levels of administration, including Paterno, showed "total disregard" for known victims of child molestation on the Penn State campus. This may be the ugliest story in the history of college football.

Freeh report on Penn State’s handling of Jerry Sandusky’s child sex abuse reveals ‘total disregard’ for victims - The Washington Post

One of the biggest discussions now is whether the statue of Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in D-1 history and a veritable legend in all of college football and the closest thing to a living god in Pennsylvania, should remain standing in front of Happy Valley.

What say you?
 
Last edited:
The Freeh report is out, and it's grim. It shows that several levels of administration, including Paterno, showed "total disregard" for known victims of child molestation on the Penn State campus. This may be the ugliest story in the history of college football.

Freeh report on Penn State’s handling of Jerry Sandusky’s child sex abuse reveals ‘total disregard’ for victims - The Washington Post

One of the biggest discussions now is whether the statute of Joe Paterno, the winningest coach in D-1 history and a veritable legend in all of college football and the closest thing to a living god in Pennsylvania, should remain standing in front of Happy Valley.

What say you?

It should be removed. What he did was absolutely shameful. No hero there.
 
If I ran the school it would be already gone. However, I do not and it is up to the school what message is important, reminding people of the success of their football team, or reminding people they turned and looked the other way while some one was raping little kids.
 
It should be removed. What he did was absolutely shameful. No hero there.

This. Penn State needs to forget him as quickly as possible and move on.
 
It needs to be left up. His personal flaws have no holding on his legendary career. Micheal Vick is still a great quarterback
 
It needs to be left up. His personal flaws have no holding on his legendary career. Micheal Vick is still a great quarterback

There isn't a statue of Michael Vick to my knowledge, either...
 
I think it needs to be removed. If anything it says that it's ok to turn a blind eye to child sex crimes in the name of having a good football team and not tarnishing the school's reputation. Paterno may have worked hard, but a man that values his job or football team more than protecting children and willfully ignores sexual crimes against children is no hero nor should he be honored.
 
There isn't a statue of Michael Vick to my knowledge, either...

If their were I wouldn't mind if they left it up. His personal issues are just that, personal. Everybody makes bad choices. If children were a part of the statue, then it ought to be removed. But, they're not. It is a statue of him leading his football team, nothing more
 
If their were I wouldn't mind if they left it up. His personal issues are just that, personal. Everybody makes bad choices. If children were a part of the statue, then it ought to be removed. But, they're not. It is a statue of him leading his football team, nothing more

They should place a statue of John Wayne Gacy in his clown's suit next to Paterno's. Afterall he didn't nothing wrong with his hours of community service in the role of a clown.
 
If their were I wouldn't mind if they left it up. His personal issues are just that, personal. Everybody makes bad choices. If children were a part of the statue, then it ought to be removed. But, they're not. It is a statue of him leading his football team, nothing more

Children were abused under his watch and he knew about it. Had he not known, I'd say leave it up, but, with current circumstances, screw it, it's outta there.
 
The NCAA is likely to impose the death penalty on Penn State, and rightfully so.

There was a time when I thought Paterno was one of the greatest. Since the report was released I no longer feel the same about Paterno. If Paterno, and others, had stepped up other children would not have been raped by Sandusky. There seems no way around that fact.

Penn State can do what it damn well pleases. I don't have any connection to the school. It isn't my fight. You do wonder, however, how the school and its supporters will feel after the NCAA imposes the death penalty for 3 or 4 years. Penn State will never be the same. It may well be that the university will one day want to put Paterno behind them and move forward. It is my opinion that his statue will be more of a bitter reminder than anything.
 
Children were abused under his watch and he knew about it. Had he not known, I'd say leave it up, but, with current circumstances, screw it, it's outta there.

So you are gonna strip him of the last good thing that is left to his name? Forgiveness, my friend. His image is forever marred by what he has done. He is paying post-mortem prices now, both secular (and if you believe) spiritually. Let him be. Leave the statue, remember his legendary coaching career, but never forget what he did/
 
So you are gonna strip him of the last good thing that is left to his name? Forgiveness, my friend. His image is forever marred by what he has done. He is paying post-mortem prices now, both secular (and if you believe) spiritually. Let him be. Leave the statue, remember his legendary coaching career, but never forget what he did/

No. When you abuse children, you don't get anything "good" to your name. He doesn't get to abuse children and "well THAT'S bad but he was a damn good coach!" If he wanted to remain a good coach, he could have turned in the administrators that were abusing the kids.
 
If their were I wouldn't mind if they left it up. His personal issues are just that, personal. Everybody makes bad choices. If children were a part of the statue, then it ought to be removed. But, they're not. It is a statue of him leading his football team, nothing more

They aren't personal issues when they involve violating other people, which he did. He turned a blind eye to Sandusky and allowed others to be violated under his watch. Things cease to be personal decisions that shouldn't be judged when they impact others.
 
Last edited:
No. When you abuse children, you don't get anything "good" to your name. He doesn't get to abuse children and "well THAT'S bad but he was a damn good coach!" If he wanted to remain a good coach, he could have turned in the administrators that were abusing the kids.

What he did was awful, shameful, and disgusting. I do not deny that one bit. He will be forever remembered as the coach that allowed that to happen. But he was also a hell of a coach. Leave the statue as rememberance of his coaching.

Sidenote: If I type trophy, read statue.. I make trophies as a summer job so it's kinda on my mind a lot :lol:
 
It needs to be left up. His personal flaws have no holding on his legendary career.

Actually his personal issues were magnified larger than life because of his career and the history of Penn State. Paterno was Penn State and Penn State was Paterno. If Paterno had wanted he had the power to prevent Sandusky from raping more children. Paterno choose to cover it up and to allow the sexual assaults by a monster to continue. Paterno, it seems, even supported plans to enable Sandusky to continue his twisted behavior.
 
What he did was awful, shameful, and disgusting. I do not deny that one bit. He will be forever remembered as the coach that allowed that to happen. But he was also a hell of a coach. Leave the statue as rememberance of his coaching.

Sidenote: If I type trophy, read statue.. I make trophies as a summer job so it's kinda on my mind a lot :lol:

His coaching is where the abuse happened. No.
 
They aren't personal issues when they involve violating other people, which he did. He turned a blind eye to Sandusky and allowed others to be violated under his watch. Things cease to be personal decisions that shouldn't be judged when they impact others.

They're personal in that it was a personal flaw. Your thing under "global moderator" says "Truth will set you free". He didn't give us the truth, but it is there; let him be free
 
They're personal in that it was a personal flaw. Your thing under "global moderator" says "Truth will set you free". He didn't give us the truth, but it is there; let him be free

The truth would've been going to the police and saying "hey, I think some of my administration is abusing children."
 
The truth would've been going to the police and saying "hey, I think some of my administration is abusing children."

That would be honesty, the truth is out. Let him be, let him be remebered, scowl at his downfalls, celebrate the good he did
 
False. His coaching happened on the field. He was not the coach of those boys. He was the coach of the young men that brought him the stature that he once had as coach.

And he allowed the abuse to occur while he was coaching...
 
They're personal in that it was a personal flaw. Your thing under "global moderator" says "Truth will set you free". He didn't give us the truth, but it is there; let him be free

You are misrepresenting my quote if that's what you think it tries to imply. I agree that it was a personal flaw on Paterno's part, but that personal flaw allowed for the sexual abuse of children which is serious. The decision to murder someone else stems from a personal flaw, should a murderer be allowed to go free because the truth was out that they killed someone? What about if someone just witnessed serial killings but never said a word about it because it might compromise their image or the image of their company? Paterno deserves no honor for his coaching. He may have been good at coaching, but he put his team's image and coaching staff (Sandusky) above the well being of children and turned a blind eye to kids being sexually violated, that is dishonorable and in my opinion violates any kind of honorable merit that he may be entitled to due to him being able to coach well.
 
So you are gonna strip him of the last good thing that is left to his name? Forgiveness, my friend. His image is forever marred by what he has done. He is paying post-mortem prices now, both secular (and if you believe) spiritually. Let him be. Leave the statue, remember his legendary coaching career, but never forget what he did/

Part of his coaching carreer was that he let this happen.
 
Back
Top Bottom