Letters: Keep Paterno statue in storage

ISSUE | PENN STATE SCANDAL

Paterno is no hero

Amen to sports columnist Mike Jensen's plea to refrain from bringing back the bronze statue of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno to Beaver Stadium ("Keep Paterno statue in a dark place," Wednesday). Imagine the impact Paterno could have had on the generations of young men he coached had they witnessed him firing his former assistant, child predator Jerry Sandusky. What a major life lesson they would have learned about the absolute imperative to protect our children.

Instead, Paterno's defenders are left trying - and failing - to uphold the honor of a man who, according to sworn testimony, chose to ignore reports of Sandusky's sexual abuse of children, resulting in the life-altering pain that the survivors must endure. Paterno didn't have the fortitude to deal with this horror. How can we possibly regard him as a hero?

|Marla Benjamin, Elkins Park