Atlanta Journal Constitution gets it Right on Fathers and Children
For children of the unwed, especially among the underclass, life without a mother and father in the home is the rankest cruelty self-absorbed adults can inflict unintentionally.
This column by Jim Wooten is much needed (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 4/21/09). Wooten is one of the staunchest champions of fathers and of children's need for fathers in the mainstream media. He gets it and is not afraid to say so. Read the above quotation and ask yourself how many MSM pieces you've seen recently (or ever) that have put it so clearly. The decision by an adult to voluntarily be a single parent is a profound disservice to that adult's children.
Wooten is writing about the Georgia Fatherhood program that seeks to connect fathers (and a few mothers) with their children. These are overwhelmingly men with backgrounds of poverty, little education and crime. But Wooten doesn't assume that they care nothing for their children. As the large and valuable multi-year study entitled Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing clearly showed, these fathers strongly desire connection to their children. As one of the Fragile Families researcher, Kathryn Eden has said, for those men, including the younger ones, fatherhood is the one thing that gives meaning to their lives. They wear it like a badge of honor that bespeaks their valiant protection of their children in a dangerous world.
Wooten understands that and tells it to his readers.
He's also willing to ask the trenchant questions about why women think it's acceptable to conceive children with men whom they don't deem to be marriageable. In other words, why has an epidemic of single motherhood developed in this country?
He's even bold enough to suggest an answer. Wooten knows that there's no substitute for two-parent families; he knows that children do better with a mother and a father than they do with a mother or a father. But, he points out, popular culture seems bent on "going the other way," i.e. toward demeaning marriage.
This tug of war between popular culture against marriage and state efforts to connect fathers and children, Wooten rightly calls "insanity."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Jim Wooten can be contacted at jwooten@ajc.com.
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