It may be that in the nano-second passage of news and our attendant inability to look beyond the crises, sensational celebrity scandals and political idiocies of the moment we can quickly forget the child abuse scandal at Penn State, but we shouldn't if American values stand for moral principles beyond tailgate parties at football games.

Former Penn State "legendary" defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky -- right hand man to "legendary" now ex-Nittany coach Joe Paterno -- has been accused of being a serial child sex abuser by the attorney general of the state of Pennsylvania, as detailed in a BuzzFlash commentary, "You Can Say This for the Child Sex Abuse Scandal at Penn State: It Gave the Vatican a Break."

It's still not clear whether suspicions or knowledge of Sandusky's alleged rape of children was responsible for his unexpected 1999 resignation from the Penn State coaching staff and resulting retirement. But it is clear, from many accounts, that Sandusky was allowed full access to Penn State, including the football training facilities.   Indeed, it was in 2002 that Mike McQueary, now a Nittany football coach himself on temporary leave, saw Sandusky forcing anal sex upon a young boy in the team shower room.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, as BuzzFlash at Truthout previously noted:

Twenty of the 40 crimes with which Sandusky is charged allegedly took place during the time he worked for Paterno, including three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, a grand jury report said.

With all the analysis, including our own at BuzzFlash at Truthout, something was extremely troubling -- in a story full of wretchedly shameful and criminal details that likely are still to be uncovered -- that a strapping college football assistant wouldn't immediately attempt to save a child from sexual deviancy by attempting to stop Sandusky.  In fact, McQueary apparently left the boy to be raped and did not remove him from Sandusky's control (although in a later account -- after the indictment of Sandusky -- McQueary claimed to friends that he had stopped the assault). But the grand jury indictment indicates that McQueary left abruptly and after the fact called his father to ask him what to do. His father, astonishingly, told him to leave the building. McQueary later reported the incident to Paterno.

Why didn't he just yell to Sandusky to stop or hit him over the head with a football helmet? Who would not attempt to halt the heinous act at once? What kind of disassociation from the reality of protecting our children from sexual predators would apparently lead McQueary to abandon the child to Sandusky's sexual abuse? That is indeed a puzzler, from a gut level of the loathing, disgust and intervention that basic decency called for.

The grand jury report indicting Sandusky for multiple counts of sexual child abuse over a period of years details McQueary's encounter with Sandusky's anal rape of a 10 year old. It states -- and this is the official court record of grand jury testimony -- that as McQueary,

entered the locker room doors he was surprised to find the lights and showers on. He then heard rhythmic, slapping sounds. He believed the sounds to be those of sexual activity. As the graduate student [McQueary's position at the time] put the [his] sneakers in the locker, he looked into the shower. He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be 10 years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked but noticed that both Victim 2 and Sandusky saw him. The graduate assistant left immediately, distraught.

According to the Pocono Record, "Mike McQueary... reportedly attended a fundraiser hosted by Jerry Sandusky little more than a year after he told school officials he witnessed Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy."

McQueary was a star Penn State quarterback when Sandusky was a top coach for the team, but the child was likely from the charity, "The Second Mile," that is "a statewide non-profit organization for children who need additional support and who would benefit from positive human contact."

According to the opening pages of "The Second Mile" website, the organization -- with which Sandusky was heavily involved -- helps children with "positive self-image, contact and interaction."

It is a common perception that in prison that child sex abusers are targeted by other incarcerated individuals -- including murderers -- as being subject of physical abuse because of the morally unacceptable nature of their crimes.

But seeing such activity in a Penn State football shower room doesn't apparently merit serious attention.

Indeed, Sandusky was not banned from Penn State facilities and the campus until after his indictment by the Pennsylvania attorney general this month.