On Another Cold Winters Night In 1980, Paul ...

ON ANOTHER COLD WINTERS NIGHT IN 1980, PAUL KEATING WAS WALKING HOME TO HIS GREENWICH VILLAGE APARTMENT, IN NEW YORK CITY, WHEN HE WITNESSED TWO ARMED MUGGERS ROBBING AND BEATING A COLLEGE STUDENT.

G. KEATING HAD EVERY REASON TO AVOID THE SITUATION:

1. HE DIDN’T KNOW THE STUDENT.

2. NO ONE WOULD HAVE EVER KNOWN HE HAD SEEN THE CRIME.

3. HE WAS OUTNUMBERED 4 TO 1.

4. HE HAD NOTHING TO GAIN BY TAKING SUCH A RISK.

5. HE HAD A WIFE AND NEW BABY WAITING FOR HIM AT HOME.

H. A FORMER LINEBACKER AT THE NAVEL ACADEMY, DESPITE THE OBVIOUS, RAN AS FAST AS HE COULD AND THROUGH HIS BODY INTO THE MUGGERS, ALLOWING THE STUDENT TO ESCAPE.

1. MOMENTS LATER, TWO SHOTS RANG OUT AND THE MUGGERS FLED, PAUL KEATING WAS DEAD.

I. AT HIS FUNERAL, MAYOR ED KOCH EULOGIZED KEATING BY SAYING, "NOBODY WAS WATCHING PAUL KEATING ON THE STREET THAT NIGHT. NOBODY MADE HIM STEP FORWARD IN THE TIME OF CRISIS, BUT HE DID HE DID IT BECAUSE OF WHO HE WAS."

J. INWARD CHARACTER ALWAYS CREATES COURAGE, BUT, TO CREATE CHARACTER, GOD MUST REBUILD THE BELIEVER’S HEART.