It was not until about the third time watching  The Deer Hunter that I finally understood what was going on after the Russian Roulet scenes.  The dead bodies being flung into the trash showed how little human life was regarded in war torn Viet Nam.

Fast forward to the present time.  I was taking a patient and his family up to his hospital room from our procedure area.  The talk of the NCAA's punishment handed down to Penn State was rampant.  Even the patient and his family were voicing opinions.  I cautioned him not to get to upset, given his condition.  Nonetheless, he remarked how it was such a shame to tear down the statue of Joe Pa, take away the Penn State wins, etc.  He said, "they can't take away those wins.  They belong to Penn State and the players."  I hinted that perhaps it was a warning to other NCAA members, that if a similar circumstance should occur, come foreward.  I didn't even go with "be a man" or all it takes for evil to occur...

The patient, the family and my coworker all sided with poor Penn State, no matter what happened to all those kids (they never said victims) the University should never loose all their prizes.

In one of my initial posts, I wrote about drivers who would sooner run a cyclist or a runner  off the road than cause damage to their precious vehicles.  Things are so much more important to people than are other lives.  This has been manifest so many times.  Any time a crisis occurs, we make it about ourselves.  We are the MeMe generation.

Many years ago, I worked in an office of all women.  At Christmas time it was a big thing to do a gift exchange, in this area it is known as a Pollyanna.  I suggested we take the money and donate it to someone or some group in need.  The office protested loudly, "We like to get presents."  One woman was particularly vocal.

As misfortune would have it, the vocal woman was fired for a number of reasons.  Right before Christmas, how dreadful, right?  Well instead of doing the Pollyanna thing that year, we took our money and gave it to that woman.  The irony drips from this story.

Our values need to be examined.  Our moral compasses need to be tuned up.  We have placed value on things for too long.  The Penn State travesty is proof.