Letters: Disgusted by the Paterno idolatry

RE: Rich Hofmann's column

"A Prayer for JoePa."

It is telling that Rich's language is couched in religious terms, i.e., "believe," "prayer," "hope," "devotion" and " magic," because Penn State created this cult of religious "athletic idealism" surrounding Joe Paterno, backed by a football culture that blindly worshipped a coach and placed him on a pedestal as an immortal god.

Wanting to believe in this myth is a misplaced emotion when talking about a pattern of kids' being abused by Jerry Sandusky, for probably more than 20 years on and off the Penn State campus in Happy Valley. Rich, do you think no one in charge, like Paterno, knew the facts?

Reading Paterno's words stating, "I thought I did the best thing for the football program," when talking about reporting the incident to the president, showed no mention of the victim - just concern for the football program once again. Again, Paterno showed little empathy, when he stated stupidly, "I never heard of . . . rape and a man." No mention that the victim was a kid. Had Paterno just fallen off the turnip truck?

The front page of the Daily News on Jan. 24 showed a section of the mural where Paterno's head is crowned by a nimbus - the same mural where Sandusky was seated at Paterno's right hand until weeks ago, when it was painted out because of his pederasty. Is the Daily News criticizing the idolatry, or is it an illustration of how high a place football is ensconced in our culture? Just like the Catholic Church sex scandal, you have to have a blind leap of faith to believe that there was no cover-up of these crimes on the part of Paterno.

I carve on Paterno's tombstone this epitaph: "He loved football more than his fellow man."

Madonna Wayne

Havertown

Watching is safety

With all the killings in Philadelphia, surveillance cameras have helped solve a large percentage of them. In this "free society," the more cameras that are installed the better, as long as they don't put one in my home. Anyone against the security these cameras provide must have something to hide.

No one has mandated submitting fingerprints for everyone or DNA samples for same. I believe that more important than the invasion of your privacy is public safety.

Charles Veterano

Philadelphia