PATERNO AND SILENCE

Maxie D. Dunnam – Kingdom Catalysts

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter,” For some reason, I thought of that word by Martin Luther King the day I heard that Joe Paterno died. It came to me again as I read that Penn State assistant coach, Sandusky, was sentenced to 30-60 years for the sexual abuse of 10 adolescents.

Joe was the winningest football coach in history and built his program on the credo “Success with Honor.” Though a national sports icon, his biography is blotched by the child sexual abuse scandal that swirled around his university. He knew about some of the abuse, so one wonders why this so-called moral paragon would choose silence and passivity in the presence of such evil.

Thus my connection of his death with King’s word, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” I commit myself to being more vigilant in the way I respond to what is going on around me in  things that really matter.  And I challenge you to do the same. Don’t be silent in the presence of evil and the wrongful suffering of others. Speak up that life might matter for those who are threatened.