The American Freedom Network

Happy Father’s Day, 2009

     Fathers are often overlooked in our culture.  Men are under constant pressure, and often outright attack, from feminists and others who believe that they have a grievance against half the human race, or who have an agenda that they plug wherever and whenever they can. 
     It is thus even more fitting to stop and remember the men who make men, one generation at a time, and who serve as protectors of women and as providers for their children.  It is easy to overlook the efforts it takes to break one’s back in a factory, on a farm, in a mine, or in digging a fighting position, in running into a burning building, or even in grinding away at a hated office drudge job, because that is what puts bread on the table.  There are no parades, as there are on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and on Independence Day, yet none of those holidays would be possible without the efforts of men, either in their own persons, or in those of the sons they raised.
     Generally speaking, men don’t complain.  My father never did, in working a succession of factory jobs after returning home from Korea.  Men do, and he did, doing work into his 50s that would wear out an average person, for a wage that would not much better than what welfare doled out back then.  There were, and are, many others like him.  Many have lost those blue-collar livelihoods in the current recession; 80% of the jobs lost have belonged to men.  The ones I meet, in the course of my work, generally don’t complain; they just want another shot at supporting their families, anywhere, anyhow, as long as it keeps the roof over their heads.
    It is fitting and just to pause and take time to recognize fathers today – our own, if they are still to hear a ‘Happy Father’s Day – and thanks for everything you did,” and collectively, as their efforts and sacrifice, from the Founding Fathers down to our own time, build and sustain our nation.