Letters: Thanks to JoePa for PSU's season

AS A PENN STATE graduate who has been a football season-ticket holder for 44 consecutive years, I am quite pleased that the Maxwell Football Club has chosen to honor the Nittany Lion senior football players with the Thomas Brookshier Spirit Award on March 1.

Most of the country's sports enthusiasts, especially the national media, figured that this team would be lucky to win three or four games at best. Most are now treating this eight-win season as a miracle of biblical proportions. I'm sure that's why the Maxwell Club decided to honor this fine group of student athletes in this fashion.

Ron Jaworski, president of the Maxwell Club, said that he was astonished by the performances of these senior athletes. Interestingly, a vast majority of Penn State alumni like me were not the least bit surprised.

Why, might you ask?

These Penn State seniors were recruited and coached by one Joseph V. Paterno. This is the same Coach Paterno whose Grand Experiment consistently turned out similar high-character young men each year of his sterling career.

Ironically, this is the same Joe Paterno who had his name stricken from the Maxwell Club Coach of the Year Award in November of 2011. Much like the Big Ten and others, the Maxwell Club rushed to judgment without the benefit of due process.

During the March 1 awards ceremony, I would suggest that Coach Joe Paterno be given some credit for this team's amazing performance in light of the unfair NCAA sanctions they were required to endure. I believe that Coach Bill O'Brien would be the first to say that he inherited an outstanding group of seniors, all of whom exhibited "Success with Honor," on which he could begin building his own legacy at Penn State.

How could the Maxwell Club best honor these Nittany Lions on March 1? Announce that Joe Paterno's name is being rightfully restored on their Coach of the Year Award.

Thomas M. Bradley

Altoona, Pa.

[Note: The writer of this letter is not the former longtime Nittany Lion defensive coordinator.]

Got their Nanny goat

I wholeheartedly agree with Stu Bykofsky's article about the Nap Nanny. It seems as though no one, in this day and age, wants to assume responsibility for their own actions and in many cases for their own stupidity.

Every day somewhere in the media there is another report of the blame game. It is always someone else's fault. The courts seem to substantiate this lack of responsibility. It is very disheartening to say the least.

Unfortunately, I don't see this situation getting any better, only worse. When does the climate and culture change. Our children are going to grow up thinking this blame game is OK. How sad.

Bill Goldschmidt

Drexel Hill

Just another example of how far our society has deteriorated and where we are headed. This example makes you wonder at what point do the bureaucrats lose their ability to use common sense in making policy and the consumers when using products.

We have become a society that has to protect the stupid few at the expense of the rest of us. God help us!

Bill Filbert

Easton, Pa.

That thing you doo

I read the article "Poop Troops," and I was surprised and concerned. Why does one create a program to aid people literally breaking the law?

The city of Philadelphia will become nothing but poop if they don't start enforcing the law that was created for this. The mayor needs to up the ante and make the fines more like $150-200, not $25.

My husband and I are fed up, just like Janet & Joe, creators of the Scoop the Poop program. We should not be accepting what these dog owners are doing.

Mr. Mayor, please enforce our laws, and don't cater to people who are being lazy, and ignorant. We have a graffiti program to make art out of what used to be graffiti, which works. Why can't we have a pick-up-your-poop watchdog group?

We don't have enough police, they are fighting crime, but wouldn't it be great if, while driving around the neighborhood, the cop can just ask these knuckleheads if they have a bag?

We can't follow all of them home (which I have done, and left their dog doo on their step). I don't feel this is a solution; I see it as a weakness to allow this inconsiderate, self-righteous behavior.

Would we dare consider assisting other lawbreakers to break the law? What's next? If we allow ourselves to be disrespected, then it's our own fault.