I'm writing to congratulate James Thompson on the straw man he set up in his letter, "Stop Paterno Worship."
Believe it or not, not all of us defend Joe Paterno based on things like emotion or tradition. Some of us defend him based on evidence.
There is evidence that Paterno cared about young people - just look at his lifetime spent working with college students. He even turned down a job coaching the Steelers, preferring to help shape young minds instead.
There is no evidence that Paterno participated in any cover-up. Lack of proactivity, while a fault, does not constitute a cover-up ... unless you're a conspiracy theorist.
There's no evidence that Paterno fully understood what Jerry Sandusky was doing; as I recall, Mike McQueary had difficulty describing it to him.
What Sandusky did was terrible, but he was just one man. And one man, however deviant, does not define an entire university or an athletic program. Stop punishing those who worked with him for his crimes. Penn State does not stand for child abuse.
Raymond J. Kotzatoski Jr.
Altoona
