Paterno comments premature, crass
The commentary in the Jan. 21 Sports section about the NCAA returning Joe Paterno’s 111 victories to the Penn State football program was a little premature and unnecessarily crass. Paterno was victim of a rush to judgment. He did the only thing he could do morally or legally — he reported hearsay information from an assistant coach about Jerry Sandusky’s behavior to his superiors. Had he actually said or done anything more that could have been viewed an accusation, he would have set himself up for a personal lawsuit or worse. There are many lawsuits to be adjudicated before the whole story is told about Paterno and the Sandusky fiasco. The NCAA is just beginning to find out what happens when you use unreliable information to make a decision, i.e., the Freeh report and the word of politically motivated individuals. Paterno will be back bigger and better than ever — including his statue. Some of his detractors already have started to find that out and regret their actions. Just ask the NCAA and some Pennsylvania politicians.
Theodore K. Bell, Madisonville, Tenn.
Armed forces not defanged or weak
A recent letter to the editor stated, “Because our military has been gutted, we are defanged and appear weak,” and blamed it on President Obama. Not only is this statement blatantly false, it’s an affront to our men and women serving in the armed forces. Currently our military consists of 1.3 million active duty and 800,000 reservists stationed in 150 countries fighting terrorism around the globe. While it’s true the Defense Department budget has decreased by a few billion dollars in recent years, this is due to the drawdown of forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. All federal departmental budgets originate in the House, are reconciled with the Senate and sent to the president to sign. To my knowledge, President Obama has never vetoed a Defense Department budget bill. The 2015 budget for the Department of Defense is $585 billion. This is larger than the next 12 countries combined. I don’t consider that amount as gutted, defanged, or weak. Fortunately, our men and woman in uniform fight for the right for us to state our opinion, no matter how uninformed it may be.