Penn State of Delusion

I was sitting in a bar last night ( I'm getting really good at it) where every television had a different college football game on it. I didn't pay too much attention to it, even though the bright colors and graphics on the magic talking box can usually distract me pretty easily. There was important, drowning-out-the-voices-in-my-head-with-liquor business to attend to, and a game is not as important as making sure I don't follow the impulse to start prank-calling the mayor's office of Kansas City, MO again. I couldn't help but notice, however, that one of these games had Penn State playing in it, which I guess was surprising because I didn't think they were still a thing.
"Didn't they dissolve that school? Break it up into smaller, less scandal-plagued institutions so that the kids could go on learning and the State of Pennsylvania can go on gouging people that think their dumbass kid has a future?" I asked the bartender.
"Please, for the last time, stop making dreamcatchers out of straws and napkins, finish your drink and leave." was his less-than-helpful reply.
But I couldn't get my mind off of it. I couldn't move on from it. I read all the articles about people at Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. I read how they wanted to focus on the school and all the good things they think it offered the world. I knew they wanted healing, closure, blah blah etc.
Seeing them on the screen though, with their 'We are STILL Penn State' T-shirts made it a little too real for me.
Guess what, alumni, students, and faculty? THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL SPIRIT AND SHUTTING THE HELL UP IS THE BEST WAY TO START HEALING.
I don't mean your own healing, you have nothing to heal from. There were people who had unspeakable crimes perpetrated against them when they were children. Crimes that your venerable seat of learning saw fit to cover up, because....football. Maybe, for just a year or two, you could go without school spirit. Play your games, drink your beer, objectify and marginalize your female students, dumb down your curriculum to keep pace with the staggering ignorance that plagues this country, and all the rest of us will work on accepting that you still exist and receive state funding.

Maybe I'm just a grouch, or maybe it's because I hate football, people watching football, and watching people watch football.
Maybe I'm also biased because I never went to college, never was really a part of anything that I could feel proud of, and just simply can't stand it when anyone talks about the storied legacy of two dozen mouth-breathers standing in a field wearing the same colors.
The fact remains however, that Penn State needs to learn about shame. Lord knows I had to. If they need a few pointers, I'd be happy to take a school to school.