It leaves the world with a sad heart and low spirits when anyone passes away, regardless of the controversy or questions surrounding the last few months of their life. And so, with the passing of legendary coach Joe Paterno, I'm left with the nagging question, is no one allowed to make mistakes anymore?
Surely, we all make mistakes and I'll be the first to admit that I've made my share. I don't lead a football team, I'm not president of the United States of America, and I don't fly an eighty ton steel bird from city to city. A mistake in these high visibility positions is much more impactful than any mistake I'll make, but I'm hard pressed to believe this means someone of such stature cannot make a mistake. No doubt these people have made mistakes as well, and such a mistake only becomes an issue with how public the results of that mistake are. Unfortunately for Coach Paterno, his mistake has become the target of massive publicity.
I'm troubled that a public mistake can rob a man of his dignity, his legacy, and ultimately his life. I'm not suggesting he did not make a mistake, he did. However, the man who has been accused of committing the true crime is in jail and will be tried for his actions. Coach Paterno was tried in the court of public opinion, and lost in a horrible way. If each of us who have made a mistake had been judged in this manner, the world would surely be a much different place. Instead of making mistakes and learning from them, our first mistake would be our undoing and we would never recover. Our lives would no longer be for living, and would quickly assume the goal of never erring.
I simply wish that we could look back on this man's life, and remember him for the great things he's done, the lives he's changed and the world he has impacted, and not for the one mistake that will forever haunt his legacy.
