Bob Lamm’s letter regarding the firing of Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno and the student riots that ensued originally appeared in Penn State’s Daily Collegian Online on November 14, 2011.
I’m a writer and teach at New York University.
This is an open letter to the Penn State students who [counter] demonstrated on the streets with signs saying things like “All That Is Required for Evil to Triumph Is For Good Men to Do Nothing,” “Kids B4 Football,” “Joe Paterno Is NOT the Victim,” and “We Are Penn State. We Are Ashamed.”
I saw photos of you online, and you are my heroes.
I greatly admire your courage, compassion, decency and integrity. In this horrific mess, you are the only part of which Penn State should be genuinely proud.
I’m sure it isn’t easy to take the public position you have in the midst of the cult of “JoePa.” Alas, I am too far away to go to Penn State and stand with you. But please know that I am thinking of all of you who have stood up for what is right. Our world needs “good men”— and good women — like you.
I’m old enough to be the grandfather of most of you. But now, you are my role models.
Bob Lamm
Bob Lamm taught a course on "The Politics of Sports" at Queens College in 1975 that was one of the first of its kind in the U.S. The course focused on sports and sexism, sports and racism, sports as a capitalist industry, and the fan pathologies of sports. He can be reached at blamm86 [at] nyc [dot] rr [dot] com.
Bob, thanks so much for posting this! I wish that these kids had gotten more attention. I was at a brunch yesterday and no one except for me had heard about these counter protests and I’d only heard about them because I’m lucky enough to be friends with you!
Thanks, Heather. That’s very kind. But, frankly, I was lucky to essentially stumble onto the photos of those courageous students with their signs. I could easily have not known either.
If you have a chance, you (or any other readers) may want to take a look at the Daily Collegian, the Penn State online student newspaper. It seems to be doing a great job of covering things.