Greed is the intense desire for something such as wealth or power. This can be seen around us everyday. In a larger scheme, this can be seen in the recent NFL and NBA lockouts. We can even look at the corporate greed that started Occupy Wall Street.

Greed is what drives people in power to make decisions they will eventually regret, and this greed ends up angering the masses of people who eventually see it in full action.

Another recent example of greed in our world was the Penn State scandal. This story was constantly on the news, and brand new stories came out by the days. Millions closely watched as the stories unraveled.

The Penn State scandal single handedly took down a college football icon, a school president with a 16-year tenure and a football program’s season. More importantly it ruined the lives of many individuals who sought after mentors, but instead found the opposite.

Penn State’s blatant ignoring of the allegations is what angered many, and people wondered why nothing was said.

The public believes Penn State should have served the students, and not the best interest of the adults. The school simply hijacked the lives of many so the school could keep an image of perfection.

One popular culprit in this scandal is assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was arrested and released on bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts.

Many of these allegations occurred on campus and even in the locker room of the football team.

The other is former head coach Joe Paterno. Penn State’s board of trustees fired him Nov. 9 because it felt the coach did not go far enough in alerting authorities after then graduate assistant Mike McQueary told the coach he saw an assault in 2002.

At the time, Paterno told athletic director Tim Curley and university vice president Gary Schultz. In the end, no one called the police, and it was pushed under the rug.

Through the years and amid various scandals, the university showed that it would put the name of the school before an innocent human being.

One of my problems with this whole scandal is that Penn State would have still hid all these  problems with Sandusky if they had not been caught.

The only reason real action is being taken is because the school is now in the national spotlight. Otherwise, it would have been ignored along with the stories of the victims.

There is no denying Paterno built a strong college football program and is a hall of fame coach. He put the school on the map and attracted millions in revenue for the school. The fact that the school ignored these allegations, however, is shameful.

The adults at the top of the Penn State food chain wanted to keep their power and money at the expense of students.

Their greed to retain this status ended up ruining the school’s reputation and their careers. More importantly, their greed ruined innocent families in their obsessive mission for more.

To contact The Ionian’s Christopher Sponn, e-mail him at [email protected]