Pennsylvania is reeling under the daily waves of allegations, reports and aftershocks of a decades long child-molestation cover up at Penn State University. Check that: the nation is preoccupied with the news of every parent's nightmare. Listening to sports radio, I've been impressed with the caliber of comments from regular joe's who have no patience for the horror of the acts or the cover up by officials. I'm also reminded of the value of conversation in dealing with major crises, the crazy history of riots in our country and the intolerance we have as a common voice for inexcusable acts against the weakest members of our society.

Penn State has, until this month, enjoyed over a century as King of the Hill in terms of well known and well attended institutions of higher learning. The main campus in State College, PA is a leafy, rolling landscape populated by the freshness of youth and decades of academic professionalism. Penn State also enjoys a sort of BMOC repuatation for its football program; there is, in most of Pennsylvania, the "cult of Penn State," which prides itself on winning seasons, NFL players and the winningest coach in college ball.

When we heard the news that vaunted Penn State, and Saint Joe Paterno (aka JoePa) had a disturbing skeleton in its closet that spanned years and subjected 10 year old boys to unspeakable crimes, the nation gasped, the echoes of which are still being heard. As we struggle to understand how something like this could have happened, how grown men could act with such abhorrence, we watch the cult crumble. The Ohio State scandal regarding tattoos for memorabilia seems positively quaint when parked next to the grim scene in Happy Valley.

And we are left with questions. How could this happen? How could THEY let this happen? And what now? How do we show Penn State pride when we are sickened? How do we recover? How do we help the children? As the shock fades, we recover our reason. We understand that those we revered are just like anyone; complicated, insecure, careless, selfish, thoughtless. Our heroes are not, in fact, perfect. We must reconcile what we expected from these public personas with what they delivered in private, and find disappointment.

Day after day, largely thanks to the rise in social media and technology, one scandal after another is revealed for judgment by the public. Just when we seemed to reach the saturation point with Oregon State allegations of improper payment of a "recruiter," this mess is uncovered.