Statues

As I had said: suspend the program for the year, leave the statue remain. Sure enough, Penn State's president decided to bring the statue down today.

I don't like discarding history. I don't like putting history out of sight. For good or ill, Paterno is a part of Penn State's history, as was that institution's decision to honor him with a statue while alive (which leaves me uneasy). I would have much rather have seen the statue remain, but with a nearby plaque addressing the infamous scandal that has tarnished his legacy.

I get an uneasy feeling that there might be some facts brought to light that might swing the pendulum back a bit. Granted, it's hard to imagine this publicity getting any worse.

Toppling statues seems like it's the right of a liberated people to do to their deposed tormentors, such as all the acts by which statues of Lenin were toppled after 1989 in the East. Or, it is something that conquering armies do to the likenesses of the leader of their enemy. To me, toppling statues carries with it something triumphant. There's no triumph in any element of what happens with the Penn State / Sandusky scandal. Therefore, let the statue remain, as much a testament to what went wrong as what seemed to have been going right.