"Just like with the victims, PSU players need to move forward..."

[mentalsolstice]

Aaron Taylor just made this comment on the CBS Halftime Report, "just like with the victims, Penn State has to move forward and play with class and dignity..." I'm quoting off my DVR...I'm lucky my husband didn't go punch in our TV. It was during the Auburn-GA halftime (and yes I live smack dab in SEC land, and we love our college football).

OMFG, victims are called upon with some kind of responsibility? I'm trying mightily to reserve my judgment of JoePa and McQueary until further facts come in. However, there were victims in the case, that's indisputable...to say they need "to move forward" and bunch them in with the current team...how stupid is this man?

I am a lapsed Catholic...I lapsed when our bishop called on us to pray for the "wretched souls of the priests and victims caught up in the scandals."

[valerief]

1. What a class A douche Taylor is. nt

[RagAss]

2. I know...it was sickening. So good to see Nebraska stab their hopes and dreams !

[MADem]

3. They should move on to new schools that have a better ethical sense.

Start applying now--if they hurry, they can maybe matriculate in the spring semester.

[John1956PA]

4. Whole-heartedly recommended.

Here in western Pennsylvania, I hear some dismaying points of view which focus on the flawed institution and not on the innocent victims.

[Quantess]

5. That is so utterly tasteless, insensitive, clueless.

He really means, "don't get in the way of the GAME!!

[Scuba]

6. Yeah, those poor players. They're victims "just like" the kids. Yeah, sure. n/t

[Orrex]

7. "Just like the victims, PSU players need to stop getting anally raped in the shower."

[mentalsolstice]

8. I fired off an email

[e-mail] <[e-mail]>.

The body of my email:

Aaron Taylor was so wrong in his analysis of PSU (given during the AU-GA halftime report). He stated "just like with the victims, Penn State has to move forward and play with class and dignity..." I'm sorry, but child RAPE victims should not be given the "responsibility" of college football players to move forward. It's a sickening meme about the cult of sports...which seems to be pervasive in the PSU case. Rape victims should be accorded the respect to heal in their own time, and if doesn't fit in with the football schedule, then so be it.

He needs to give a big apology to rape victims, or CBS needs to ask him to step down. I will refrain from all CBS Sports programs and I will encourage all my family and friends to do so until a rectifying statement is given by Mr. Taylor and CBS Sports.

[melissaf]

9. I took this comment as Taylor saying

the victims and football players need to heal. Everyone's shook up, and there's a lot of healing to do on all sides. Granted, there's a HELL of a lot of healing that needs to be done on the side of the victims. Granted, too, comparing the football players to the victims was pretty damn stupid. But a lot of people say stupid things off the top of their heads.

Also, the current football players are not accused of raping any kids. They are NOT comparable to the wretched souls of the pedophile priests.

[mentalsolstice]

10. And the victims should do so "with class and dignity?"

WTF does that mean? Please explain it. I'm not blaming you, I don't know if you "saw" his statement...but what I saw this big hulking ex-football player give his opinion of how RAPE victims should act, and his opinion was they should act in accordance with "the team, and move forward with dignity and grace."

And you totally misquote my reference to the wretched souls of pedophile priests and comparing to current college football players. Nowhere did I put down current PSU football players. I actually feel sorry for them and as young adults that they're caught up in a child RAPE case. However, I could never equate a RAPE victims needs to theirs.

[fishwax]

11. I didn't hear what he said, but when I read your statement I didn't connect the

"class and dignity" with the victims (since it was modifying "play"). I didn't interpret it as calling for the victims to do anything, but of course I didn't actually see/hear it.

[thucythucy]

12. I don't know if it's ignorance

or an unwillingness to empathize or a stunned inability to understand the implications of what has been alleged, but it seems to me that over and over again some people feel an urgent need to minimize the suffering of rape survivors.

One way is a simple unwillingness to call the crime what it is: rape. I watched the NBC evening news a couple of hours ago and the events at Penn were called a "scandal" and "sexual abuse"--but I didn't once hear the word "rape." A ten year old boy was anally penetrated--that's rape. Why not call it by what it is?

The second way is by drawing all these false equivalencies. "Just like the victims..." etc. etc. "Everyone is suffering..." "JoePa will have to live with this the rest of his life..." and so on.

I simply can't express how offensive and insensitive I find that sort of language. The fact that so many people seem so utterly clueless tells me how far we have to travel as a society -- and how difficult it's going to be for ANY survivor of child rape to heal in this context.

The thought I can't get out of my mind is that poor boy, confused, naked, alone, probably terrified and in pain, being brutalized by someone he no doubt trusted. In comes another adult, who clearly sees what's happening, AND THEN TURNS AND WALKS AWAY. Talk about having to live with something for the rest of your life!


Compared to that, whatever issues others have to "work through with dignity" pale to absolute insignificance.

I just wish I could spell it out more clearly.

[mentalsolstice]

13. Truly, thank you!

So many have referred to this as a scandal, and it is as far as the covering up, but foremost it's about RAPE, that's why I keep capping that word. RAPE is the crime that was committed, the coverup is scandalous (as far as it's not chargeable as a crime).

Your statement "The fact that so many people seem so utterly clueless tells me how far we have to travel as a society." I guess at my age I would say it's how far we have "fallen" as a society, but it's really splitting terms, society has always pretty much stunk as far as I'm concerned, but it sinking to lower depths as we speak.

I get you on that poor child, another person looks in and then nothing happens. I can only hope this person, now an adult, is in a supportive, loving place. I'm reserving judgment on McQueary right now, but that's probably because I'm trained as a lawyer and I want to hear all of the facts and any explanations, and my brain splits objective no matter how hard I try to make it do otherwise. However, whatever he did or didn't do, there is no denying there are very real rape victims/survivors in this case, Sandusky did that, and for any sports commentator to minimize their needs is egregious.