We pretend that honesty and hard work are American values. But from the news this week, it's evident that this is mere pretense.
We value football over the well-being of children. We value anger over honesty. We value wealth and power over everything. We value the testimony of women not at all.
I say "we" because it wasn't just one person deciding not to report Sandusky's abuse of multiple children. Do you know how rare it is that child abuse is actually witnessed? Yet even with several witnesses, it took decades for charges to be made. Because the witnesses and the University administration put a higher value on football than on protecting children.
Part of this is because Sandusky deliberately sought out vulnerable, at-risk children who would be unlikely to report and even less likely to be believed. And of course, under-privileged children aren't as important as a winning football team. Supporting a winning football team is an American value, protecting innocent children isn't.
I say "we" because time and time again when a famous person is accused of any sort of sexual crime or harassment, the victim is the subject of scrutiny - is she a whore? Is she mentally ill? Has she any debts? Is she out for revenge? Does she have political motivations? While at the same time the famous person is given the benefit of the doubt. The victim is subject to harassment and death threats, all for having the gall to report on his or her experience.
This isn't just about Cain. It's about how wealth and power trump all. And how eager we are to defend those we see as being on our team. I was a lot more willing to give Clinton, Spitzer, and Weiner the benefit of the doubt than I am to extend this doubt to Cain. Why? The problem is across our whole society.
Is it possible that it's all lies? That multiple women have some sort of political agenda against Cain? That Sandusky was really just being a pal to young boys? Of course it's within the realm of possibility.
But it's much more likely that we as a society value winning - winning football teams, winning political figures, winning corporations, winning businesspeople far more than we value our laws that protect people society doesn't see as winners.