Jeff and I email back and forth during the day while he is at work. It is sometimes just amazing the things he sends to me. I am sure you all have heard about the mess with Joe Paterno of Penn State University and all the boys in his football program. The athletic director seems to have been a not nice man and things were not done correctly when others tried to expose him. There was a story on Fox Sports this morning Jeff read. Jeff and I have discussed in length many of the abuse issues going on in our society in the recent years. Below are some comments I received from Jeff on what he felt about a few articles he has read in the news. I thought it was worth sharing. It made me think and hope it will help stir some thoughts in others to help us ALL take the action we need to be more Christlike. Now some things you may not agree with, however, please notice and ponder on the overall thoughts in what is related below.
I sent you a link to a story from Fox Sports. I read it and thought it was very profound. It’s hard to determine how to feel about Joe Paterno and Penn State. Like the guy said, they had banned his wife from swimming in the pool after he was fired, but held a huge memorial for him on campus? Weird. It’s like people don’t know how to feel about the whole thing. I do agree that things are becoming either black or white in our country. You’re either left or right politically or religious or not. I also read a story about a 16 year old girl from Rhode Island who is an atheist and she is coming under huge attack for petitioning her school to remove a prayer banner they have had up for 40+ years. She is 16 years old and has received death threats. There are some atheist organizations who have tried to send her flowers in support and the florists won’t deliver the flowers! It’s amazing to me how hypocritical people can be. They stand on their religious, moral high ground but if you say anything against what they believe then they become evil and hateful. Doesn’t that sound more like…”can you say…Satan?” ha. Remember the Church lady from SNL? Ha. I mean really? Why is that so many people find the only way to defend their belief in a loving and caring God is to defame and be cruel to others? Where is the common sense in that? OK, so you don’t believe her and disagree with her. You can disagree and still be kind and loving towards her. Why not just get rid of the sign and say, let’s all just believe how and what we may and not judge anyone? OK, so the sign has been there for many years and most people who went to the school didn't even realize it was there. They were never asked to recite it or anything, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that when people feel that someone is challenging “God” then they have to defend him violently. Where, and I mean, where, anywhere did Jesus say to be violent towards others? The only case of any real “violence” on his part was in making the money-changers leave the temple. He got angry. OH MY GOSH! You can get angry and be upset, but threatening a young girl’s life? Come on. Calling her names? Come on people. Even a State Representative from Rhode Island called her “ an evil little girl” on a radio talk show – he was a Democrat, by the way. J I just don’t get our country. We’re going through more growing pains here in the good ‘ole US of A. Just like the ‘60’s were having to come to terms with who and what we are and how we believe. The division is becoming as stark as it was then, too – maybe even more so. It’s more than just wearing your hair long and smoking pot and protesting the war. Now it’s religious beliefs, moral issues (gay marriage, etc.), bullying and much, much more. It’s hard to grow up. It’s painful – hence the term, growing pains. We’re all having to look at ourselves differently. Just look at the church’s new commercials. They are now portraying a lot of different ethnicity and facial hair! Ha. I hate to say it, but for the LDS church that IS a big deal. They have men on there with beards and mustaches that are not even “conservative” in the realm of facial hair. It’s done purposefully to try to convince people that the LDS church is more than white shirts and ties. However, with that said, I KNOW better. Those people are still the vast minority in the church and I would bet do not hold major leadership callings. That is not shared or even hinted about because that goes beyond just joining the church. People everywhere are trying to come to terms with what life is all about. We have all seen so much suffering, natural disasters, death and loss in our world. It’s making people reevaluate themselves. Even major organizations like the church are having to do a side-step now to just stay afloat. I sent the Joe Paterno thing because it is sad. Sad that a man who had been looked up to by so many people had to have his life end this way. I even looked up to him to some degree for the reputation I knew he had. I think many people outside of the Penn State arena did. He had a great record of not only winning but of helping young men become better than just football. Unfortunately, like the man said in the article, he was a man. We do want our heroes, but when we see that they are flawed, it challenges us once again. How can they be human? They were so above us, weren’t they? No, not really. It’s like the time I said to my mission companion that Pres. Kimball put his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us and he (my comp) became upset with me for making the prophet so “normal” and human. Guess what? They are. All of them. All of us. We are all human. We have created a society where there are those who sit above the rest of us on some glorified sphere and look down – politicians, celebrities, athletes and coaches. In truth, we all die just like everyone else. We are born and we try to live the best life we can. Some of us achieve more visibly than others, but in the end, life does to each of us what it has always done. We all have choices. I am hard on myself and want to[die] because of stupid pictures of myself. I know it’s dumb. It even sounds ridiculous in just writing it, but it’s a real thing to me. Those young men, who are now much older, also deal with the abuse that was dealt them at the hands of a trusted coach. The coach who was his boss didn’t follow up and make sure it stopped. He said something and then let it go. He should have done more. We all should do more. While Joe Paterno now lays in the ground, those people have to deal with the effects of being sexually abused, which is something [many] know can do real damage. My picture thing isn’t just about looking fat and ugly. It’s about all the years of being told I was not good enough because of my weight, my mannerisms or my status (being poor). It’s all wound up into one person who struggles every single day to get out of bed and keep moving forward. It’s a person who never feels like he is good enough. I can’t imagine how these other people must feel... hope you can make some sense out of what I have written.
