GENERAL NOTICE: To all those who were offended by my post on PSU, please read this message.

[HopeHoops]

The editing period expired before I could do anything. I tried and wrote something much more eloquent than is likely to follow, but I do think it is important to express my apologies.

Thank you MineralMan and others.

I'm not a sports person. I admit that. My initial scans of the paper led me to believe that it was a case of an aspiring senior offering a favor for admission. Apparently that was tragically wrong and it was a 10-13 year old kid. I fucked up. I admit that. I'm not ashamed to admit I was wrong.

I was only trying to make two points. The first is that it is wrong for anyone to offer their bodies for favors such as admission, and also that such events happen every day in low-profile situations and aren't reported, considered, or even a cause for social concern. I stand by those two points. My mistake was not reading the material thoroughly enough to notice the age and circumstances. As I said, I'm not a sports person. I fucked up.

Please accept my apology on this matter.

HH.

On Edit:

This isn't an "if I offended you" apology - I just fucked up, okay?

[hlthe2b]

1. My heavens...

I think the lesson should be NEVER EVER EVER make assumptions without informing yourself, especially where sexual misconduct is the issue.

"Offering ones self for favors like admission?" Damn, I think I would try hard to make others forget you ever wrote such a thing, rather than standing by that comment. Especially upon learning it had nothing nothing nothing NOTHING to do with this horrific scandal.

Sometimes the best thing to do is learn ones lessons and move on. That said, no one here is immune to their own faux pas and mistakes.

[HopeHoops]

2. Well, I generally keep my self well informed - that wasn't one of the issues.

I should have kept my keyboard shut.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. Hey, we all fuck up. Go and sin no more, all is forgiven

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. My last comments on the matter. You had time to edit. If the post was

still there you would still have had time to edit as it is still within the 1 hour time frame.

Your initial scans of the paper should have begun with a headline, Former Penn State Football coach indicted for sexual assault on children...or Joe Paterno resigns amid child abuse scandal...etc.

The repeated sexual assaults of more than one disadvantaged child over a period of years is as horrible as it gets, in my book. The apparent cover up makes it all the more heinous. What do you find far worse than that? They are innocent and their parents put them in a program in the hopes it would add something to their lives. Instead, it destroyed their lives. Yes, that is worthy of our concern. You fucked up, and it has nothing to do with not being a sports fan. And, when you fucked up, you refused to edit a post over several minutes...and we still stand within the editing period here. This OP is disingenuous.

Your apology smacks of "I apologize IF you were offended...." when everyone knows that if disqualifies an apology.

[HopeHoops]

7. I guess I was answering individual messages for that time - it's only one hour? WTF?

And no, it isn't an "if I offended you" apology. My point is that there are kids getting abused all over the place and the paper doesn't seem to give a shit about them (or the other MSM outlets for that matter). My apology was sincere - I didn't realize he was that young. And yes, I fucked up - I didn't read far enough into the articles. I admit that.

[HopeHoops]

10. I updated the message to clarify - I fucked up. It is as simple as that.

[TheWraith]

5. Not "10 to 13." He was raping a 10 year old boy.

There are seven other victims around that age.

And your "mistake" wasn't not reading more carefully. Your mistake was jumping to the conclusion without even BASIC knowledge, for whatever reasons of drama or personal obsession in your head, that this kid was prostituting himself for personal gain and that everybody was making much too big a deal out of it. And as a corollary to that, the confidant assertions that somehow it wasn't really that important if it was a 16 year old boy being forcibly sodomized in a gym shower by a 60 year old man.

[HopeHoops]

8. Yeah well, that gets me thinking "where were the parents", yah know?

I shudder at the thought.

[LynneSin]

20. More than likely it was a child in a foster care program

Sandusky's charity was called 'Second Mile' and it was a program that worked with underage boys who were in foster programs. Many of these kids had troubled backgrounds.

In a nutshell Sandusky created his own personal Candy Factory with plenty of candy for him to pick from with no parental units getting in his way.

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. They were foster kids (many of them) and kids with social disavantages

... So, I guess that answers your question. But you would know that if you were reading responses to your posts. Way to continue to try to marginalize this. And I swore I wasn't going to continue to respond. :argh:

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. The youngest boy was 8 years old. :( n/t

[HopeHoops]

9. seriously?

[in_cog_ni_to]

23. Unfortunately, yes. It was reported on Ed Schultz's show last night.

:cry: Those poor babies. :cry:

[TheWraith]

11. By the way, I call bullshit on you thinking it was consensual with a teenager.

In another message, two hours BEFORE you posted your offensive tripe, you said this in dismissing it:

"An assistant coach rapes a kid in the locker room"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2277409&mesg_id=2277597

You appeared to know then, two hours beforehand, that this was neither consensual nor a grown man.

[HopeHoops]

13. I'm not sure I said it was concensual, but perhaps the language might have implied that.

Coercive? Thinking on the lines of "do you want to be admitted or not?", which I was, coercive consent would possibly apply. Seriously though, I thought it was an admissions tour, not a young kid. I'm not even sure why a young kid would BE in a college locker room shower. Does that make any sense to you?

[TheWraith]

24. Oh, you were also the FIRST person to respond to another thread...

Where the OP had said that "if somebody is buggering a little boy in the shower I'll be calling both the cops and an ambulance."

You were the first reply. 45 minutes before you didn't know the victim wasn't 18.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2278121

[Atman]

17. HopeHoops also said he wanted the story on the sports page, where it belongs.

I agree with you; sounds unlikely HH didn't know what this was about, given those two posts in the same thread. Further, this is one of those stories that virtually every DUer has started a thread about, me included. It was not possible to look at the Discussions page or a random sampling of GD sub lines and not see one of the many, many threads. So that would mean HH just logged in and started typing without looking at the forums. Really? I'm not buying it, either.

[pnwmom]

12. I think you're just digging yourself in deeper. Stop before you suffocate on your own words.

Yes, of course it is much, much worse with a helpless little kid.

However, no one in a position of power has the right to accept sexual "favors" from someone seeking employment or education. The onus is on the person in power, not the person "offering" his services.

Even between two adults, this would be abuse of the superior's power, and a reason for termination.

[HopeHoops]

14. Yeah, no argument there.

[Generic Brad]

15. Get your facts straight before you post or tweet - like Ashton Kircher does

Actually, I kid. You are not the only person who this has happened to in the past 24 hours. You are not alone and I don't see how a reasonable person could remain upset with you.

[HopeHoops]

16. I don't even tweet!

[Wait Wut]

18. I didn't read your post...

...but, I can gather the gist of it from what you wrote here and the comments. Obviously, you made a mistake. I think you've done a great service to DU by posting an open apology. Many here should learn from this.

I also want to add that if I had read your original post I probably would've ripped your head off for seeming to condone this sick fuck's behavior. Glad I read this, instead. :hi:

[LynneSin]

19. Been there, done that, bought the souvenior t-shirt

You know we :loveya: man!

[seabeyond]

21. i didnt respond on that post but i was gonna say.... gd, not lounge. nt

[JohnnyLib2]

25. This OP makes sense to me. .

Screw up, try to correct is ASAP (looks like around 45 min.) and move on.

I'm thinking all the anger floating around can find better targets....

[MiddleFingerMom]

26. Once I heard about this horrendous chain-of-events, it took me FOREVER...

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... and REPEATED sessions of research to get real details about the case. I think
the MSM is reluctant to print things for many reasons -- and will report on the
issue while leaving out essential details. The fact that CHILDREN were involved
was pretty far down the road on MY research journey. I also assumed they were
young undergrad students or athletes or "athletic staff hopefuls" for a while (and
at my age, I sometimes think of young ADULTS as "kids" -- it's a chronological
perspective thang more than one of disrespect). Most people do NOT presume the
VERY worst of others automatically or instinctively. I would think most Liberals
are much less Hobbesian in their views about human behavior than other demographic
groups.
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As far as "posting before you did enough research" ? WTF? We're not working on
comprehensive doctoral theses here. This forum is a FAST medium itself -- and
who would know BEFORE the fact whether they did "enough" research or not. One
can't KNOW whether one has done ENOUGH research -- until and unless reasonable
refutations occur (or someone simply informs, ahem... educates the original poster
instead of making their focus "condemnation/flagellation" -- satisfying as that
practice might be to some).
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I think SOME people on this forum are sometimes all-too-quick to pile on someone
for an innocent... at least "unintended"... mistake or omission and KEEP ON pounding
and pounding and pounding. Plus, often it's easier to point a finger at "the darkness"
as opposed to lighting a candle.
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And SOMETIMES I realize that the self-satisfaction of smug self-righteousness
and a "punishment mentality" is -- so unfortunately -- NOT solely in the realm of
conservatives.
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Perhaps "same as it ever was":
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr8DIg3oHFI
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