I could not be any more proud to be a Presbyterian College graduate. I remember, with fondness, attending every home basketball game that I could. Presbyterian College is a school where you go to sporting events to cheer on your friends because the guy who just made the winning goal was in your freshman orientation group, sat next to you in Biology, or participates in a campus ministry with you. The story of Coach Nibert, his wife, and his familys heart to care for the abused infants of South Carolina brought me to tears. I was a student there while his family was helping so many hurt children, but I had no idea. The fact that he used his time after the Duke/Presby game to bring awareness to the abused children, despite the smirking faces of the media, is an example for everyone to fight injustice where they see it. Nibert spoke from the heart, earnestly calling attention to the plight of the innocents to whom he opens his home. He pleaded to those listening to understand the gravity of the depravity committed against them. The Niberts have received babies with concussions and broken bones. There often is the need for late-night emergency room visits, and for doll-sized braces that help them heal. There are ceaseless, agonizing cries of pain. There was sincere emotion painted on his face, but as he looked from face to face with plaintive eyes, he didn’t see a match for the urgency and emotion he felt. He didn’t see any understanding. Media members looked at each other, some stifling smirks. They were there to write the story of a game whose outcome had never been in doubt. The best team won. The best players were the top performers. A post-presser outburst from the opposing coach hadn’t been in the script. Some surreptitiously recorded the scene on their phones, just in case the meltdown became tweet-worthy. Nibert continued speaking. Someone would hear his message. After all, these were the same people who, prior to the game, were looking in horror at photos of a toddler scarred by a switch-wielding NFL player named Adrian Peterson. What would they say if they saw the aftermath of more heinous abuse — against even younger victims? How would they react if they knew about the horrors he’d been repeatedly exposed to over the last eight years? What if they had seen the unspeakably sad scene he’d just left behind in Clinton?
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 14:14:18 +0000
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