Penn State today finally caved to public pressure and removed the statue of Joe Paterno, the once-worshiped coach exposed as an evil fraud who allowed the raping of children. The move acknowledges the absurdity of maintaining a shrine to a man responsible for allowing horrific crimes on his watch, committed by coddled buddy Jerry Sandusky. While no one thinks Paterno’s deeds approached the scale or severity of those perpetrated by the other figures noted here, today’s event does bring to mind historic topplings of evil icons.
