Celebrating Father’s Day 2016 amid America’s growing fatherlessness
Father’s Day 2016 is just around the corner, a day whose history dates back to July 5, 1908, when a West Virginia church sponsored an event to honor the 362 men who died in a mine explosion. coal, a planned. I try only time, but then…
The following year, Sonora Smart Dodd, of Spokane, Washington and raised with her five siblings by her widowed father, took matters into her own hands. As she told her priest after a particular praise sermon for her mother on Sunday morning: “Don’t you think parents deserve a place in the sun too?”
Thanks to his efforts to win local support from merchants, officials, and the YMCA, Washington celebrated the first Father’s Day on July 19, 1911, but it was a near miss. As you can imagine, many men laughed at the idea of flowers and gifts, and little progress was made. In fact, it wasn’t until 1966 that President Lyndon Johnson issued the first proclamation honoring dads, establishing the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, President Nixon made it a permanent national holiday.
In those good old days, 87.7% of the Baby Boomer generation grew up with two biological parents who were married to each other. Today that number has dropped to just 68.1% and is trending downward. And so, no matter how you address him, be it father, daddy, papa or something, count yourself among the lucky ones.
That’s because fatherlessness is now said to be the biggest family and social problem we face today. In fact, fathers.com goes so far as to say that “if classified as a disease, fatherlessness would be an epidemic worthy of attention as a national emergency.”
Don’t hesitate for a minute.
According to the US Census Bureau, some 24.7 million of our children do not live with their biological father. That translates to 57.6% black children, 31.2% Hispanic children and 20.7% white children. And while, in 1960, only 8% of children were raised by a single mother, as of 2012, that number was 24.5%.
In other words, about a quarter of our children do not live with a parent.
and so it says New York Times Michael Gurian, bestselling author, “Without fathers you would have no civilization. We hope that Father’s Day will be a time when the culture says, ‘This is our time to see who our men and boys are. If we don’t protect the fatherhood, we’re going to be really screwed.
It seems we already are, as we reportedly spend $160,000 per child on child welfare and education, with most of that spent after the toddler years. That translated to about $29.4 billion in fiscal 2010, and the number continues to rise.
Another result: It is said that 90% of high school dropouts and 63% of youth who commit suicide come from fatherless homes.
Like I said, it looks like we’re already in trouble, and that’s why a book like Bill Byrne’s How long does it take to catch a fish? is so important. Dedicated to his father, who passed away at the age of 44, he writes: “…Like a tear on a favorite sweater, the hole his death created in my life undid even more as time passed.” . As he tells it, he would often dream of his father appearing out of nowhere, always leaving him with “the grim acceptance that when the dream was over, he would be gone and I would be alone”.
An irreparable hole…
Want to help put a dent in that hole? You can with a donation to the National Center for Fatherhood, which helps improve the lives of children and families by providing tools, resources, and programs. As the organization reminds us: “Even if you are an involved father [or are fortunate to have one]Until we succeed, your children and grandchildren will grow up in a culture of absent fathers and fatherless children. They will be affected!“
With thanks, Happy Father’s Day.