This past week I stopped by the White House to hear about the initiatives the President will be rolling out during a White House celebration of Fathers Day on Monday and I left encouraged and excited. I remember when I first started talking about mentoring and fatherhood a few short years ago how little discussion there was about the issue of fatherlessness. It was a dark subject that brought up thoughts of weakness. Now, it seems, a positive spotlight is being shone on the power and importance of fathers.
If you’re dad is around, would you do me a favor? Would you make a really big deal out of him this weekend? Would you take him to a baseball game, shower him with corny (or perhaps thoughtful!) gifts, and tell him how important he is to you? It’ll mean the world. I’m hoping in the next decade Fathers Day becomes a huge deal, a day of celebrating positive masculinity, a day of celebrating the amazing gift that strong men bring to families and communities. We can start by making an enormous deal out of Fathers Day.
On Monday the President will make a few major announcements, including an explanation of a 500-million dollar request he is sending to congress and urging them to fund this summer. I’ll definitely be asking you to light up your congressman’s phone lines when that initiative comes up for a vote. I can’t think of an investment with a greater potential return than to aim dollars at struggling mentoring programs and non-profits that are equipping and resourcing dads to stay involved in the lives of their kids. These funds will pay us back in the reduction of social programs regarding teen dropout rates, drug use, unwanted pregnancy and many more, nearly all of which stem, in part, from problems associated, in part, by the absence of positive male role models. In my work with the Presidential Task Force on Fatherhood and Healthy Families, we’ve discovered we don’t only have a fatherhood crisis in America, we have a masculinity crisis. We’ve simply forgotten how to be men. And we’ve forgotten how much power we have to shape the lives of our own children.
If you’re a dad sticking it out with your family and your kids, THANKS. And if you’re a father struggling through the tension to stay in your children’s lives after a separation, thanks for facing the tension because you love your kids! It will mean the world to them in the long run. Dad’s, in my opinion, you are the most powerful force in the lives of your children. Thank you for not being passive. Thank you for understanding and taking responsibility for your power. Thank you for turning your power into love and commitment.
If you’d like to help in what a team of us in Portland are doing, please donate $10, $25 or $50 a month to The Mentoring Project. Those proceeds go to providing positive male role models to kids growing up in completely fatherless homes. Give to The Mentoring Project as a gift to your father this Fathers Day!
Happy Fathers Day!
