if you thought the way penn state football program was screwy, wait till you hear about their lady basketball program.
the president had a media opportunity the other day and a journalist asked the president about the penn state situation. "heartbreaking. we think first and foremost of the victims of these alleged crimes. it's a good time for us to do some soul searching, every institution, and not just penn state, about what our priorities are, and making sure our first priority is protecting our kids. we all have a responsibility, we can't leave it to a system. we cant leave it to someone else."
he's talking about soul searching. when he says it's time for soulsearching about our values of kids vs. sports and all that, the president needs challenged him why HE continues to do special favors for kevin johnson, a former boston celtic, now mayor of sacramento. there have been 2 major accusations of him groping underage girls, one in a shower while naked, strange six figure payoffs to the one girl's parents, similarly in sacramento. there was another issue a bout a student in one of his charter high schools, not to mention his misuse of americorps funds. obama goes to the mat for this guy. the man has a history of doing things with underage women-children, strange payoffs and intimidation of people. why aren't all the moral watchdogs in our society paying any heed to this matter?
the president maintains a friendship with johnson. would the president enjoy having mr. johnson around his lovely daughters?
at penn state, back in 2003, a young woman named jen harris, an honors graduate of a prominent high school accepted a sholarship to play basketball for penn state lady lions. a year and a half later, ms. harris was dismissed from the basketball team . rene portland, her unbelievably great sucessful coach, with the blessings of the university administration currently hiding the man-boy rape scandal, made no secret of her training rules. if you were to play womens basketball at penn state, there were to be no drugs, no drinking(football players can drink), and NO lesbians. portland's intention, she told the chicago sun-times was "to take the stigma of lesbianism out of women's sports."
some female athletes are gay; some male athletes are gay.. so what.
portland was hostile to athletes she suspected, included harris, who was apparently not gay, driven to the point of suicide.
harris, sick of the homophobia in women's sports filed a lawsuit against portland, tim curley, and the university, alleging discrimination based on perceived sexual orientation. she had no idea other young women on the team would come forward detailing abuse and discrimination at the hands of penn state university.
portland promised parents she would take good care of young athletes she was enlisting.
any girl on the team she suspected of lesbian tendencies was kicked off the team.
times change, and coaches, and the rest of us must change.
penn state, at the same time, is tolerating one of their major coaches boinking young boys and god knows what else.
ethics are ok, i guess, until they interfere with our personal or institutional goals and friendships.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Portland
burning piano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpKT_eeCVNI
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