The question "What did you know and when did you know it?" is one that must be asked to a whole lot of people up the Penn State food chain. Sure, it is easy right now to look all those associated with Nittany Lions gridiron and even the current university administration; but I believe there are many, many, many more responsible for aiding and abetting the years of abuse so many young boys suffered as a result of Sandusky's pedophilia.

Having spent my entire professional career, spanning over 30 years, in higher education there is one thing that is certain "secrets" - no matter how innocuous - never stay secrets very long. But as certain as the secrets that everybody knows so too are the cover-ups. Especially when the secret involves an individual(s) with enough political, monetary, or influence to ruin or even make a career. In higher education, it can be said, breeds very strange bedfellows.

So as we wait to see the other shoe fall and the smoke clear at Penn State, I suspect that the answer to the question "What did you know and when did you know it?" must be asked not only of the fired president and head football coach, but also of the following:

1. The Athletic Director
2. The Vice President to whom the Athletic Director reports
3. Each Vice President reporting directly to the president
4. The University's Chief Attorney
5. The Football Program's Primary Donors
6. The Board of Trustees
7. Members of the Pennsylvania Legislature
8. The Governor

According to the Grand Jury in this case, the cast of characters being told about Sandusky and or witnessing his actions as far back as 1998, reads like a sordid version of "Chicken Little"; except in this case The Sky Really Did Fall! Yet, the Board of Trustees, the Attorney General now Governor, Joe Paterno, and even University Administration would have us all believe that everything is/was all good in University Park. WHY? While WHY? may be the $64,000 question, there is no way that anyone can convince me that everyone up this food-chain had knowledge of the heinous acts perpetrated on young innocent boys by Sandusky.

To put it bluntly, there is simply no way that "gossip this good" lies dormant for over a decade on any university campus. There is no way that one - let alone two - janitors are going to see or hear first hand any untoward or seemingly inappropriate behavior by a university official high above his/her pay grade and not tell it over a couple of beers. There is no way that Joe Pa, the President, or a Vice President isn't "questioned" by a big-time donor about the rumors he/she heard at the barber shop or beauty parlor. And am I really expected to believe that not one university trustee or member of the Pennsylvania legislature NEVER had as much of an inkling about what was going on? PLEASE! This kind of information on a university campus and within a university campus community travels like wild fire.

I hate to think that it took Penn State to act upon these 1998 allegations in 2011 because of the money generated by its football program. I hate to think that this was a massive cover-up that we've not seen since Watergate or Iran-Contra. I hate to think that there was a massive 13+ year conspiracy involving a university of such magnate.

Perhaps, I'm wrong...But, I doubt it!

Much Obliged...Very Much Obliged!

SjP

If the award-winning movie, Glory, is on your "must see whenever it's on" list, then you are no doubt moved every time you hear the line "If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry it on?". And that final scene when Private Trip, who had expressed no desire to "carry your flag" minutes earlier, dies while holding the flag during the famed Civil War assault on Fort Wagner probably fills you with some sense of wonderment, pride, and even patriotism.

Both a great line and scene in an extremely memorable movie depicting an extraordinary moment in American history, it is quite probable that both were truly inspired by actuveal events. According to Luis F. Emilio, author of A Brave Black Regiment: the History of the history of the Fifty-fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865 and highest ranking survivor of the Fort Wagner assault, it was General George Crockett Strong who actually uttered the words "If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry it on?". And it was, according to Emilio, Colonel Shaw who answered in the affirmative.

But, as we know from history (or the movie) Shaw was killed during the battle; and we know, as Emilio tells us that the man carrying the flag was also killed. So, who "lifted the flag" to carry it on?


Born a slave in in 1840, William H. Carney was a free man on February 17, 1863 when he enlisted in the 54th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. In a recount of the Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, Bethanne Kelly Patrick of Military.Com states:

...The siege at Fort Wagner was one of the war's bloodiest, and 1,500 African-American troops died in their country's service. Col. Shaw, who had led his troops into battle, was shot down just as he reached the summit. ...wounded in head, leg, and hip and lying in agony near the fallen Shaw when he [Carney] saw the soldier bearing the American flag falter. Gathering his strength, Carney seized the colors: "In less than 20 minutes I found myself alone struggling upon the ramparts, while the dead and wounded were all around me ... I knew my position was a critical one, and I began to watch to see if I would be left alone." Confronted by a battalion of enemies, Carney wound the flag around its staff and held it aloft while running through a volley of Confederate grapeshot. ...When he reached friendly lines, Carney refused to surrender the flag to anyone save a member of his own regiment. Handing it over as his comrades cheered, Carney cried, "Boys, the old flag never touched the ground!" and fell to the ground in a dead faint.

No! That old flag never touched the ground! Much obliged, Sgt. Carney! Very Much Obliged!

SjP

Sharon Bialek is now the fourth woman to accuse Herman Cain with sexual harrassment. The bombshell, a blonde Chicago Republican, was allegedly groped by Cain in 1997.

How much you want to be that Cain's refutes this by beginning "See, what had happened was...."? But, I guarantee you that nothing he says to the American people will be anywhere near as good as the sho' nuff gripping he's doing right now to his wife, Gloria!

Much Obliged...Very Much Obliged! SjP