Laura, can you envision the long-term culture of "protect The Program at all costs," to which McQueary was born and in which he was raised? A culture which he finally bucked - as one of the lowest members - by demanding that his father help him, protect him while he stood up for what was right? It's obvious that you think any person would be enraged in the situation he found himself. Of course anyone would, no one disputes that! But just as I can understand why the parents of children molested by priests did not take matters into their own hands or beyond the holy borders imposed by the Catholic Church hierarchy, I can understand why McQueary may have been terrified at that moment to confront Sandusky himself. But he did immediately call his father from his office on campus and was told to go to his house, where he was somehow persuaded to take his concerns to Paterno the next day (possibly instead of what he wanted to do, get the police involved immediately?) As others have said, the actions that he did take are most likely responsible for exposing the cover-up. Do you really not see how he did what he may have thought was the only thing he could do?
Now I know this is all conjecture - obviously I don't know any more than you do about what McQueary was thinking or doing. But I can at least appreciate that he was in a situation that probably none of us have ever been in. Not just at that moment, but throughout his entire life. (And admittedly, I may be unfairly applying what happened in my childhood parish to what went on at Penn State. But I'll be very surprised to find that the similarities I see between the two don't actually exist.)
