The other day I was surfing the Internet and I came across a post that really spelled out a major societal issue with a simple statement. It is easy for young males to grow up and neglect to take part in raising their kids — financially, physically and emotionally — because that is the sense of normalcy for many of them. One of my authors, Caleb Alexander, once penned a novel called Eastside, about gangs and their violent behavior. At the end, he wrote a commentary, pointing out the fact that there was not a single father mentioned in the entire book. The crazy part is that, unless he had pointed that out, very few people probably would have noticed. It has become such a sense of normalcy in certain communities that everyone just accepts it.
In fairness, many of the fathers cannot be there for their sons. Many are incarcerated, deceased, or strung out on something. They cannot be role models for their sons. But then there are those that have numerous kids with numerous females and feel it is acceptable to check on their kids every now and then, like they are checking on a time-share property in Florida.
If you are a father out there reading this, one of the ones waking up daily and not checking on the health and welfare of your biological children, please re-evaluate what you are doing; especially if you have sons. It is devastating to the daughters as well but as least mothers can teach them how to be women. But who is going to teach the sons to be men? A lot of mothers have convinced themselves that they can do it. However, boys who grow up with just women being their providers will believe that it is OK for women to provide for them forever. This morning a lot of women, likely millions, left out of their homes to go to work while their men turned over in bed. These same men will get upset when the women do not have enough money for them to spend, or will start yelling when their women refuse to give them money. They may abuse the women out of anger, cheat out of revenge or to get some money from their side women, or they may just throw temper tantrums or withhold sex until their women give in. Whatever the outcome, they have chosen to be emasculated. Let us begin to break this cycle as well, please.
