What drove the football down the Nittany Lions’ field, keeps scantily clad celebrities on stage, motivates politicians to promote gambling and besmirches the movie industry is a very low common denominator: sacrifice principle, preserve profitability.

It’s not where, or whether, the pigskin flies but rather the pigsty where America feeds that recent national events have exposed.

The folks responsible for what is shown in theaters, for example, have been looking inward lately in light of the darkness that shrouds the nation’s soul given the evil emanating from Aurora, Colo.

But what with current multimillion-dollar promos for mega-movies, there’s zero chance anything will change other than postponed release dates and avoiding Friday fan frenzies by showing violent films on Wednesdays instead.

The depth of depravity to which the theater industry will go is directly proportional to how deep are the pockets of theatergoers.

“Filmmaking is as gloomy as hell,” a cinema marketer said, “but it doesn’t seem to be keeping anybody away.”

From the showers of Penn State to a theater in Colorado, America is looking for culprits.

I’d suggest a mirror.

The depiction of handcuffs as “Penn State sweatbands” is a slap in the face to all the fine students and faculty of that university who had absolutely nothing to do with the tragedies that occurred there. To make such light of the situation is even more of an insult to the victims.

I hope that in future publications you may take a more sensitive approach to like subjects.

The effects of child abuse are far reaching and tragic, not only for the children, but for society as a whole. The resulting trauma is not always, but statistically is very strongly, correlated with future mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, and criminal behavior.

Years ago, I worked for Child Protective Services, then as a mental health specialist at Group Health, and finally as a psychiatric evaluator for admissions at Fairfax Hospital.

It became painfully obvious to me that as a society it would be far better to prevent child abuse than to try to correct the terrible damage later. Reparative efforts can be costly, and not always easy. Additionally, in these days of large cuts to social and health services, access to services is becoming increasingly problematic for many.

One thing we might consider is more education through Public Service Announcements via the television to raise awareness of child abuse (it also, for example, includes neglect, negative verbal treatment and bullying) as well as the importance of reporting. Hawaii is my second home, and for years I have noted that they seem to make very good use of PSA’s.

We need to do much more to protect children.

These incidents highlight the fact that as community members we are accountable in educating others to identify abuse and protect our most vulnerable populations, especially our children. We must learn to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to the realities of child sexual abuse.

A child’s safety is an adult’s responsibility. We cannot rely on children to protect themselves, and we must not ignore our suspicions, but act on them if we suspect abuse is happening.

This is one of the many reasons why it is imperative to prioritize funding for sexual assault victims. Treatment for victims and communities is essential to healing and creating a better Washington.

The state is encountering significant financial challenges that are putting funding for sexual assault services at risk. Funding cuts to our sexual assault programs in Washington state are unacceptable. Almost 60 percent of victims who receive these vital services are children.

Protect our children and their families. Tell your legislators: No cuts to sexual assault funding for victims.

(Walsh is development and marketing manager for HopeSparks.)

Perhaps these rioters need to interact with an abused child and explain to that child why an abuser gets to be placed in a higher position while the abused child is ignored and not cared for.

College students, the cream of American culture, were among the rioters. Certainly the students were demonstrating against what was allegedly done to the victimized children – right?

Please tell me they weren’t rioting so coach Joe Paterno could be on the sideline for one more game.

They were? You’ve got to be kidding.

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”– Martin Luther King Jr.

What a different outcome this may have had if in 2002 Mike McQueary had intervened that night when he observed a little boy being sexually assaulted in the shower by Sandusky and then called the police. Many innocent children could have been spared.

To think he left to consult his father and then go up the chain of command to spare stepping on toes is morally reprehensible along with the rest of the cover-up.