A token, forgotten overnight

AP photo

By

Don Krieger

Due to the media outcry over the Larry Nassar’s sentencing, Lou Anna Simon, the president of Michigan State University, resigned Wednesday. She included the following statement: “As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable. As president, it is only natural that I am the focus of this anger,” The clear implication is that she bears no blame or responsibility.

Does anyone remember that Ken Starr, the special prosecutor during the Clinton administration, resigned as president of Baylor University in August, 2016, due to consistent mishandling of multiple sexual assault charges against its student athletes? Here is the report to Baylor’s regents, a 29 page “findings of facts” which is worth a read.

We all remember something about the Jerry Sandusky debacle at Penn State University. Sandusky and Penn State’s president, vice-president, and athletic director all went to jail. The revered Joe Paterno resigned and died in disgrace shortly after the story broke. And we know why, don’t we? The victims were male. Sexual assault of female, even a girl, is far more forgettable.

The victims at Baylor, MSU, and innumerable other colleges and universities have been women. Somehow the molestation of males at The Citadel has largely escaped public notice.

It’s noteworthy that yesterday’s news from Michigan State is not even trending on Facebook.

Don Krieger

I have built satellites, worked in the operating room, been in a cult, …

I earn my living as part of a group which is trying to understand and treat head injury.

In my poetry and short blog pieces, I want to express ideas with unambiguous clarity and intensity.

I willingly sacrifice rhyme and meter, art, cleverness, elegance, and beauty for these.