I trust
you all had a joyous Thanksgiving. For me, my
descendants and ancestors, it was our first holiday
to break bread around my 26 foot-long dining room
table strategically centered in my new addition.
This brings a close to an overwhelming project which
took me nearly 17 months of evenings, weekends and
noon hours to complete. I know I was violating a
commandment by working seven days a week, however
when questioned about healing on the Sabbath Jesus
told the Pharisees “Who would not pull their donkey
from the well should he fall into it on the
Sabbath?” Redneck logic suggests my ass has been
stuck in the well for the past 68 Sundays.
I was making coffee around five o’clock Thanksgiving
morning, when I heard rustling up in the loft. I
expected the nine grandkids and four dogs bunking
upstairs to have slept longer, but five of the
youngest ones quietly appeared in the kitchen
dragging their blankets and sucking their thumbs.
One-by-one, I set each on a stool at the counter
with a small bowl of cereal and a small glass of
juice; small being the key word so as to minimize
the impending spills. The wee ones are a half-asleep
mass of pajamas, blankets, frumpled hair, thumbs and
blue eyes. These will be the only quiet fifteen
minutes of my day. It is great being a father of
three and a grandfather of 12, responsibilities I
savor and take very seriously. Sadly, my version of
the American family is dying and here is proof.
Ferguson, Missouri, is being sacrificed. For four
months, political whores have fanned the flames of
hatred while waiting for the grand jury decision
regarding the police shooting of Michael Brown. If
America were a true Democracy governed by mob rule,
Officer Wilson would have been be lynched long ago.
Fortunately, we are a color-blind, constitutional
republic governed by the rule of law and the cooler
heads of the grand jury determined Officer Wilson’s
use of force was justified. He was set free in a
city where he can never again publically show his
face; truly collateral damage in the left’s war to
promote racism.
Just as instructed by the likes of Reverend Jackson,
Al Sharpton, Eric Holder and President Obama, thugs
brave enough to expose their boxers but too chicken
to reveal their faces, looted and destroyed anything
of value. While viewing this senseless mayhem, did
you notice the one thing remarkably absent? Unlike
my Thanksgiving table, fathers were nowhere to be
found and here is why.
Our great American experiment in freedom relies on a
strong family unit to pass the values we cherish to
the next generation. Faith, family, freedom, rights,
responsibility, a strong work ethic and a
willingness to sacrifice are not characteristics
transferred in the bloodlines, they are passed at
the family dinner table. Contrary to the tenets of
modern feminism, a father needs to serve as head of
the household. However, for progressives to create
an all-powerful Marxist utopia, they must replace
fathers with government programs; a dangerous
demolition which began with President Johnson’s War
on Poverty. Fifty years and 20 trillion dollars
later, the ruling class can herald Ferguson,
Missouri, as the champion of their efforts. In 1964
the illegitimacy rate in the inner-city was 7
percent, today it is 74 percent; fathers have been
completely removed from the equation and the urban
family has collapsed.
When you look at the crowd of looters, nearly all
are less than 30; the byproduct of two generations
of fatherless households. Had I not had a father who
raised me I could easily have been burning cars in
the streets of Ferguson while thinking I was due the
bounty produced by others. However, I did have a
father who made me the person I am today. I labored
to instill those same values in my own children and
I am relieved to see them appear in my
grandchildren. For America to right herself, men
must accept their roles as fathers and grandfathers,
thereby removing government programs from the
equation.
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