On the Triumph of Evil and Escaping Blame

There’s a good deal of debate on the internet whether or not Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” John Stuart Mill said something similar, and so do various passages in the Bible. JFK used the quote, so I’ll attribute it to him. The quote matters to me in the context of the sex abuse allegations swirling around the Blackhawks. Yesterday, former head coach Joel Quenneville resigned from the Florida Panthers. Previously, Quenneville had denied knowing anything about the alleged abuse committed by video coach Brad Aldrich against Kyle Beach in 2010. This is the same Quenneville who visited my nephew at home as he lay dying of cancer. How to reconcile that act with a lack of action? All I can do is turn to Burke/Mill/the Bible/John F. Kennedy. A paradox can be explained, if not fully understood. I continue to struggle with one other aspect of this story, how the Wirtz family has avoided its share of blame. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Rocky and his son Danny are claiming ignorance as a defense. If that won’t work in a court of law, why should it anywhere else? The point is, ownership needed to know what was happening. And, in failing to do so, it should be punished fully as much as anyone who once served in the Blackhawks’ front office or on the bench. Anything less allows evil to triumph.