As 2013 begins and Pennsylvania is re-engaging in the Sandusky fallout, I overviewed numerous media outlets the other day and was struck by the focus of most pieces through 2012 related to the horror show. More specifically, what was not focused on.

Now that the blood fever and hyperbolic drive to disembowel the famous and powerful have subsided, it’s time for cold, hard, meticulous, unyielding, deliberate justice to have a chance.

There remain primary enablers at large who have been held to no account. At a minimum, Second Mile executives — and, potentially, Pennsylvania child care professionals — fiduciarily responsible for children in their charge and professionally trained and required to be alert for nuances and to “connect the dots” were advised in 2001 of an uncomfortable incident involving the charity’s founder. Their apparent actions on that advisory: nothing. Stunning.

That, people, is the elephant in your neighborhood. Folks who knew and were required to wake up every day to protect their clients have gotten out of Dodge in the cacophony in 2011-12 aimed at Penn State, not them. Unacceptable.

Time’s up. It feels like do-gooders are getting a pass just because they’re do-gooders. Current reality is that those whose primary professional responsibility it was to protect their child clients — not Penn State — failed catastrophically.

Moreover, when pursued analytically, the blood fever story that Penn State officials had primacy in all this changes.

The lynching’s over. Time for justice.

Kenneth Rhodes

Auburn, N.H.