Post by MARIO on Jun 17, 2005 21:12:39 GMT -8
Fatherless in America...
Mark Alexander
June 17, 2005
Many families will celebrate Father's Day this Sunday, but the tragic reality is that some 35-million children live absent or apart from their biological fathers. One in two children -- and only one in five inner-city children -- are in homes with their fathers.
Of course, any assertion that fathers are critical to the well-being of children will undoubtedly offend the PC NOW crowd -- you know, those enlightened liberals who have, for the past four decades, insisted that mothers can do it all. Indeed, they've dismissed men as little more than a nuisance -- one necessary for procreation but detrimental to proper parenting.
The Grande Dame of the so-called "women's movement," Gloria Steinem, once declared, "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." Liberal columnist Maureen Dowd's forthcoming book, "Are Men Necessary?" is the latest manifestation of the man-hater movement.
Of course, many moms have no choice but to do it all because many fathers (in and out of their homes) have abdicated their responsibility for proper love, discipline, support and protection. The disastrous social consequences of this abdication are clearly evident and well documented. Though some single parents do manage to bring up relatively well-adjusted kids with the help of extended families, churches and schools, the correlation between social deviancy and fatherless homes is irrefutably linked.
Not all fathers are separated from their children voluntarily -- many are forcibly removed by mothers who've bought into the lie that fathers aren't necessary. Of course, there are also mothers who just want to upgrade. Under such circumstances, most state courts provide fathers limited responsibility or visitation with their children, and only now are some states acknowledging the critical role fathers play in the lives of their children.
Here is the truth -- and it is a hard truth for men who have abandoned their families, but a harder truth for their children: Most social problems -- crime, drug abuse, unwed pregnancy and abortion, youth suicide, school dropouts and the like -- are the direct consequence of fatherless households.
"Children who grow up with their fathers do far better -- emotionally, educationally, physically, every way we can measure -- than children who do not," notes Institute for American Values president David Blankenhorn. "This conclusion holds true even when differences of race, class and income are taken into account. The simple truth is that fathers are irreplaceable in shaping the competence and character of their children. ... [The absence of fathers] from family life is surely the most socially consequential family trend of our era."
READ THE REST:
www.townhall.com/columnists/markalexander/printma20050617.shtml
Mark Alexander
June 17, 2005
Many families will celebrate Father's Day this Sunday, but the tragic reality is that some 35-million children live absent or apart from their biological fathers. One in two children -- and only one in five inner-city children -- are in homes with their fathers.
Of course, any assertion that fathers are critical to the well-being of children will undoubtedly offend the PC NOW crowd -- you know, those enlightened liberals who have, for the past four decades, insisted that mothers can do it all. Indeed, they've dismissed men as little more than a nuisance -- one necessary for procreation but detrimental to proper parenting.
The Grande Dame of the so-called "women's movement," Gloria Steinem, once declared, "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." Liberal columnist Maureen Dowd's forthcoming book, "Are Men Necessary?" is the latest manifestation of the man-hater movement.
Of course, many moms have no choice but to do it all because many fathers (in and out of their homes) have abdicated their responsibility for proper love, discipline, support and protection. The disastrous social consequences of this abdication are clearly evident and well documented. Though some single parents do manage to bring up relatively well-adjusted kids with the help of extended families, churches and schools, the correlation between social deviancy and fatherless homes is irrefutably linked.
Not all fathers are separated from their children voluntarily -- many are forcibly removed by mothers who've bought into the lie that fathers aren't necessary. Of course, there are also mothers who just want to upgrade. Under such circumstances, most state courts provide fathers limited responsibility or visitation with their children, and only now are some states acknowledging the critical role fathers play in the lives of their children.
Here is the truth -- and it is a hard truth for men who have abandoned their families, but a harder truth for their children: Most social problems -- crime, drug abuse, unwed pregnancy and abortion, youth suicide, school dropouts and the like -- are the direct consequence of fatherless households.
"Children who grow up with their fathers do far better -- emotionally, educationally, physically, every way we can measure -- than children who do not," notes Institute for American Values president David Blankenhorn. "This conclusion holds true even when differences of race, class and income are taken into account. The simple truth is that fathers are irreplaceable in shaping the competence and character of their children. ... [The absence of fathers] from family life is surely the most socially consequential family trend of our era."
READ THE REST:
www.townhall.com/columnists/markalexander/printma20050617.shtml