At Penn State, many miles to go
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Through the centuries, "going the extra mile" has come to mean simply giving a little more than what's expected. But that's not the idiom's original phrasing or meaning -- and Jerry Sandusky must have known it.
He didn't name the nonprofit he founded for disadvantaged children "The Extra Mile." He chose to name it "The Second Mile" -- a phrasing that goes back to the idiom's source and therefore carries a special significance.
In ancient times, throughout the sprawling Roman empire, a Roman soldier could compel any civilian to carry his heavy gear for a mile. Wherever the civilian was going, whatever he was doing, he had to abandon it and submit, temporarily, to forced labor. He had to trudge one mile hauling who knows how much weight.
Citizens of vanquished countries bitterly resented serving their hated occupiers in this way. That's what it meant, and why it was so startling, for Jesus to tell his oppressed fellow Jews, in the "Sermon on the Mount" of Matthew 5, "And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two."
Go the second mile: Do much more than the law requires -- even for someone who's taking advantage of you. Even when the law is unjust.
Jerry Sandusky chose this specifically biblical name for his charity, implying that he'd be doing much more for children than the law requires or the government provides. Instead, under cover of a Christian call to self-sacrifice, he (allegedly) took horrific advantage of society's most vulnerable members.
Instead of sacrificing himself for others, he is accused of sacrificing them to his monstrous appetites.
And instead of adults going the second mile for children, it's now the children who'll be hauling a terrible load through the miles of life still ahead. Some of them will collapse under its weight.
Some of them might have been spared this fate, but it seems quite a few adults in "Happy Valley" didn't go even the first mile for these anonymous victims. That was essentially the grand jury's non-biblical but damning conclusion, revealed nine days ago.
Mr. Sandusky was charged with sexually assaulting at least eight boys, from 1994 to 2008, who were part of his charity's programs. If the charges are true, his moral failure -- let's not mince words -- his acts of evil are nauseatingly obvious.
But two Penn State officials were also charged, not for directly injuring any children themselves, but for failing to report to police one of Mr. Sandusky's alleged crimes in 2002 -- the on-campus rape of a 10-year-old boy -- and for providing false information about their handling of the long-ago incident during the recent investigation. They are accused of failing to do even the minimum that the law -- a just and reasonable law -- requires.
First Published November 14, 2011 12:00 am
