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The Fine Art Of Not-Resigning

Micheline Maynard
4 min readJan 22, 2018

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Aly Raisman at last week’s Nassar trial hearing

As a distinguished alumni of Michigan State University, an award I received in 2014, I’m appalled by the Larry Nassar case.

I’m heartbroken for the young women gymnasts abused by Nassar, who was based at MSU, and whose pleas for help went unheard by adults who might have prevented them from harm.

I’m also kind of stunned that MSU’s president, Lou Anna Simon, has not yet resigned, given the university’s association with Nassar.

But, then, neither has President Trump, in the face of allegations that he paid off a porn actress, on top of everything else that has happened during his presidency.

Nor did Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, when members of his administration were charged in the Flint water scandal.

There is clearly, now, a fine art of not-resigning.

It’s an exquisitely cynical reflection on what has happened to our society and our sense of moral outrage in the lightning fast media age.

In the past, any of these stories might have ended with a simple conclusion: they would have stepped down.

After all, Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that famously read, “The Buck Stops Here.”

Every business leader of any note will tell you that the chief executive is ultimately responsible for any…

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Micheline Maynard
Micheline Maynard

Written by Micheline Maynard

Journalist. Author. The Check blog on Forbes.com. NPR and NYT alum

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