On The Verge of Common Sense

      I listened to POTUS on my satellite radio the other day, but instead of hearing the news about politics of the United States, I heard host Pete Dominick intersperse his comments with disparaging remarks about hunters.  I hunt, but took the first steps down that path when I was in my later twenties, and am very interested in listening to thoughtful people speak about their views on this subject as I was not always inclined in the direction I am now.
 

     But Dominick was not thoughtful, and even in the face of criticism from his guests, and innumerable callers, tweeters, and emailers, maintained an opinion that was ignorant of the topic about which he was speaking.  I expected more from him and the station, and despite the opportunity to listen to some well informed observers shed some light on the “Super Committee’s” failure and the political landscape forming after their announcement of defeat, I turned off the radio and finished my drive in silence.

       Dominick insisted that there was some moral failure of hunters who took pictures of themselves with the animal they harvested.  He insisted that taking a deer was a simple thing, weighted against the prey because the hunters were armed, and that the braggadocio he associated with the photographs was ridiculous.  Dominick’s ignorance of the effort most hunters make to harvest an animal was almost as astounding as his insistence that deer were hunted with shotguns, which, at one point, he suggested sprayed bird shot, making even the act of aiming easy.

      Of course, deer are usually taken with rifles, sometimes at long range or in thick brush where the shot is critical, and if with shotguns, loaded with slugs.  Shooting a deer is often not easilydone, and where I live, in the Rocky Mountain west, years sometimes pass before a legal animal is taken.  I confess that on one occasion I had a picture taken with the deer I had shot; kneeling next to my son who had just taken his first buck that morning as well.  I did not publish the photo, but had I done so it would not have been to signal our triumph over a lesser animal but to celebrate a rite of passage for Jake and I both.  Not having been raised in a family that hunted, rather by parents who found hunting objectionable, but who have learned to tolerate it over the years, having my son hunt with me now was special.

     And, I submit, for that type of reason, and many more, hunters, often have their pictures taken with their animal.  This year I took a picture of my deer so my wife, who was in Denver while I was hours away in Westcliffe, knew I was successful, and would be filling part of our freezer with venison.  I have been asked repeatedly by friends and family to see the photo since.  There is no intent to brag, nor any monumental congratulations given, but, rather, recognitionby them  that I reliably put meat on the table every fall.  

     At this time of thanksgiving, when we are well reminded to appreciate the bounty around us, worse can be done than respecting that some of us strive to harvest our own from nature, and that in the process we sometimes are proud of the skill it usually takes to do that.  Dominick’s opinions were uninformed and, therefore, useless.  I wonder how much his ignorance also extends to the political topics about which he is supposedly paid to speak about.  Maybe if he sticks to things about which he knows something he’ll be able to stop making such stupid comments and I’ll turn the radio back on.

       The Penn State Board of Trustees has heaped disgrace on top of dishonesty and depravation by failing to provide Coach Paterno with the dignity he deserves after 61 years of unfailing service. Their decision was based on half truths and assumptions fueled by the Pennsylvania Police Commissioner’s hypocritical criticism of the coach. Paterno did what he was required to do and reported the incident to his superiors; they failed him by refusing to make the mandatory report to law enforcement, but before we pass moral judgment, as the Police Commissioner suggested, and which became the unspecified reason to disgrace the university once again, by Coach Paterno’s discharge, perhaps the Commissioner can explain why there has been no criticism of the State College Police, and local District Attorney who failed to take action when the first report of Sandusky’s depravity was made in 1998.

        The sad truth is that reports to law enforcement are as often ignored, bumbled, or mishandled as not. The fault for Sandusky’s continued abuse of children after 1998, let alone 2002, does not lie with Coach Paterno, nor even the disregard for the law shown by Curry and Schultz, but, rather, with the prosecutor and local law enforcement who failed to take action at the outset. To believe that the victims since 2002 would have been spared had Joe Paterno called 911 is unfounded speculation; the more likely truth is that had he followed up his report to Curry with contact directly to law enforcement he would have been considered as having an agenda and accused of trying to influence the investigation.

      The clear language of the child abuse statute discourages more than one report from the institution; had Curry, Schultz and Spanier done their job, as Coach Paterno had every reason to believe they did, he had no reason to unnecessarily make the second call. In hind sight he wishes he had, and so do I, but the fact that he failed once to go beyond the reasonable human expectations of ordinary people, and make a mission of following up on his report of the deviancy of a man he coached, and worked with for thirty years, is understandable. That the Board of Trustees has scapegoated him for allowing Spanier to develop a culture which allowed, or encouraged, institutional cover-up, is a further disgrace of Penn State.

     Rather than Coach Paterno’s discharge, the Board should have itself resigned for failing to audit and recognize what is now obviously a lack of moral compass by the top levels of the institution. I for one have renewed my alumni membership (which lapsed due to oversight) in large part so I can vote against these trustees and express my displeasure with their hasty, insensitive, and transparent attempt to dissipate their own blame. Shame on them.