Penn State – No Words

See those sweet faces? Those are my sons. And may God help the person who ever harms them.

I am so sick about the events that have unfolded at Penn State. I find myself sitting down to write about it, yet I cannot bring the words from my heart to the page. I tear up and feel such heartache for these boys and their families. I cannot begin to imagine the pain, shame, disgrace, and fear they must have endured. We are adults. We are human beings. We owe it to our children, the most vulnerable among us, to speak for them and protect them and advocate for them. There are simply no excuses. When you look up “unforgivable” in the dictionary, you will see the faces of all those who let children be abused on their watch.

Many others have said it best.

 

“…perhaps that is what ultimately unites us as a world: the fact that, no matter how prosperous a nation, how developed, all share the plight and embarrassment of having so many suffering children. We are united by our neglect, our abuse, our absence of love. Have we forgotten about the children, and thus forsaken the next generation?”
— Audrey Hepburn

In the past, children were all too often viewed more as property than people. Many victories for children’s rights have been won in the last 100 years, such as child labor laws, protecting children from having to work long hours in unsafe conditions; public education, allowing all children to have access to learning; and laws preventing child abuse. But there is still much to do in protecting children’s rights around the world.
— Robert Alan

There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they can grow up in peace.”
— Kofi Annan

“When the lives and the rights of children are at stake, there must be no silent witnesses.”
— Carol Bellamy

If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.
— Pearl S. Buck

You must work – we must all work to make the world worthy of its children.
— Pablo Casals

If we don’t stand up for children, then we don’t stand for much.
— Marian Wright Edelman