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| Photo by Shawn Inglima for www.onwardstate.com |
If the memorial taught me anything, it was to look at Joe Paterno as not simply a great coach, philanthropist, or even human being. It taught me to look at him, and all other great people I aspire to be like, in relation to their families. For these men and women are more than only that to the families that helped make them who they are. To these families they are parents, children, siblings, and loved ones. They see sides of these people we never get to see, know secrets about these people we never know, and deal with these people at their absolute worsts. If anyone deserves to be cherished and applauded for Joe Paterno and all the good he has done, I truly believe the family's role in his accomplishments must be acknowledged. They say behind every great man lies an even greater woman, I believe that behind every great person lies an even greater family.
As we move forward from all these events, I am not naive enough to believe that things will be the same. We cannot forget about the tragedy that occurred here, and we must face the shame that accompanies it every day. There will never be another Joe Paterno, and I would have it no other way. The best we can do is remember the good times with a smile, make a vow to never allow anything like those heinous acts to happen again, and look forward to our future. And, in the words of Jay Paterno, I would like to tell Joe that, "You won. You did all that you can do, you've done enough. We all love you. You can go home now." Let's let Joe go home, the family grieve in peace, and Happy Valley return into the quiet, loving place that made it so special in the first place.
Jack, I agree. Though I was not able to attend the memorial, I watched it, and I think all of the speakers did a good job emphasizing the role that family plays in the life of an individual. Also, I like the aknowledgement that families know "secrets" about their family members that no one else will ever know. I would like to add that I think that's what was so disturbing and upsetting to many regarding media coverage of the recent events. The only people who will ever truly know what happened and what everyone's true role in the events were are the people who personally experienced them. Everyone else is an outsider looking in, and it is extremely hard to know based on judgement what the truth is. The more removed from a situation one gets, the less he/she really knows as fact. As students, it hurts to see someone in our community get hurt, and even we are not directly involved in the situation.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't able to attend the funeral but from what I have heard it was a beautiful event. I agree with you in that we didn't really know Joe. In that sense, I cannot seem to find this deep love for a man that I have never met. I can say I truly find the man inspiring, for the fact that he has inspired so many and I find him to be a good coach based on his stats but I cannot atest to his character. The man he was behind closed doors was never something that I experienced. That being said, I hope that Penn State can move forward from here on out. Give the man, and his family some peace.
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