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« on: June 14, 2012, 07:08:35 PM » |
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The Patriot Post - Fatherhood: The Foundation of Liberty
From The Federalist Patriot
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Fatherhood Is the Foundation of Liberty -- Real Men, Read On...
By Mark Alexander
June 14, 2012
Fatherhood: The Foundation of Liberty
Fathering Requires Real Men Who Support Their Families
"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families... In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years... The vices and examples of the parents cannot be concealed from the children. How is it possible that children can have any just sense of the Sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their mothers live in habitual infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant infidelity to their mothers?" --John Adams 1778
When I think "father," the word first invokes my relationship with the person who irrevocably shaped my own life. My Dad was always there for my siblings and me, and he was always a devoted husband to my Mom. He was and remains a real man, a man's man in every sense of the word.
Yeah, he was also a type "A" fighter pilot1 -- and of the most aggressive breed, a Naval Aviator. Being as I inherited that "A" gene, it's remarkable that Dad has survived into his 90th year, given all the head-butting KOs we traded when I was a teenager. Fact is, I left home when I was 14 because our town was not big enough for the two of us -- and he was not leaving.
When recalling my early trials with my father, I'm reminded of a great quote attributed to Mark Twain: "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Like Twain, it took me a few years to figure out that my old man was a good father and a good mentor to boot. Today, I'm so grateful for the steadfast example he set, and the love we share for each other.
"Father" next evokes my relationship with my heavenly Father, my Creator. That relationship has also experienced great trials, but He has stood by me through all my trials and tribulations.
Of course, "father" also evokes thoughts about my relationship with our children, and that is precious beyond words -- a greater gift I could not imagine. Thank goodness I haven't repeated some of the mistakes my old man made with me, but I've certainly created some "new and improved" mistakes with my kids. I hope in due time they can summon the grace and grant the forgiveness that I've asked for those errors.
Finally, the word "father" evokes the heritage bequeathed to us by our forefathers and our Founding Fathers.
These four contexts for "father" -- God the Father, my own earthly father, my role as father to my children, and the legacy of our forefathers -- combine to create a rich and abiding sense of what fatherhood means, what it should look and feel like in heart and practice.
But for tens of millions of Americans from broken homes, the consequences of failed fatherhood are the enormous obstacles2 their children must endeavor to overcome in relationships with their Creator, with their own spouses and children, and in their ability to honor their forefathers' legacy.
Understanding the critical role fathers play in the welfare of the family as the fundamental building block of society has been understood throughout the history of man. In 295 B.C., Mencius wrote, "The root of the kingdom is in the state. The root of the state is in the family. The root of the family is in the person of its head."
The Father Factor, the statistical social and cultural consequences3 when fathers abandon their natural role, is well documented.
Nowhere are those consequences more evident than when fatherless children, in their relentless pursuit of approval never provided by their own father, become overachievers and ascend to positions of power. The pages of 20th-century history are rife with the terrible misdeeds of those who were raised without fathers, or with abusive or ineffectual fathers: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and many others of lesser infamy.
Among those who have ascended from broken homes to positions of political power in our own nation, there is a distinctive Pathology of the Left4 associated with their insatiable quest for approval and power, and their resulting advocacy for a platform of socialist statism5 upon which to build their throne. The most notable examples in recent history are Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and, of course, Barack Hussein Obama, who is a textbook case study of narcissism6. The political, social, cultural and economic damage that these men have done in their warped search for power is considerable. |
