Ethical Lapses at PSU, Ethical Void in D.C.

Ethical Lapses at PSU, Ethical Void in D.C.

A course in ethics was a requisite for a B.A. at Fordham University in the 1960′s and I have to confess I probably semi-slept through it.

It’s apparent that Ethics 101 either wasn’t required at Penn State University or that Nittany Lions coaches also slept through it. Meanwhile, in Washington, President Barack Hussein Obama has made such a farce of ethics in the federal government it’s hard to believe he understands the meaning of the word.

Ethics was a tough subject although its essence can be reduced to the study of moral principles and their applicability to rules of conduct.

Dictionary.com provides a more detailed definition: “That branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.”

In turn, that definition can be summarized to doing the right thing just because it is the right thing to do.

Many wrongs are associated with recently-publicized events at PSU. Some may be termed ethical lapses of omission. They include Coach Joe Paterno’s failure to notify law enforcement authorities, university administrators covering up perfidious behavior, and Coach Mike McQueary’s grossly negligence in not interceding on behalf of a 10 year old boy being raped in a school shower room.

The most profound ethical failures committed have been attributed to Coach Jerry Sandusky, illegalities and moral tupitude which allegedly continued for some 15 years, from his initial molestations of young boys to McQueary’s witnessing Sandusky violating the ten year old.

Both Sandusky and McQueary are Penn State graduates but so too are the other 557,000 alumni of that immense and still great school. A few rotten apples can spoil a barrelful but a handful can’t spoil an outstanding university. Now that they have been exposed, they will be prosecuted and victims will be compensated even if that compensation can never wipe clear the memories of what they suffered.

Similarly, an unethical American president can stink up the White House but he can’t spoil a nation.

Obama and the administration he leads have been caught in numerous ethical breaches but, thanks to his mainstream media and stonewalling lackeys, so far they have gotten away with such breaches and only time will tell whether they ultimately ”come home to roost,” to quote his pastor of 20 years. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5954.)