This article, appearing the day before Father's Day 2001, is by Stephen Baskerville, political science professor at Howard University.
You can respond to WorldNetDaily at letters@worldnetdaily.com, and can contact the author at:
Stephen Baskerville baskers@email.msn.com
To read the full text of the commentary: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23271
There are also links to other articles on fathers, including Donna Laframboise's recent piece.
Excerpt below.
WorldNetDaily Exclusive Commentary
SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2001
By Stephen Baskerville
© 2001 Stephen Baskerville
Fatherhood is all the rage. President Bush unveils a $315 million plan "to promote responsible fatherhood." Sen. Evan Bayh, head of the Democratic Leadership Council, hosts a televised conference on "Connecting Fathers and Families" and promises to make fatherhood a top issue. Both houses of Congress, plus the governors and mayors, create bipartisan taskforces on "fatherhood promotion" and issue resolutions affirming the importance of fathers. The National Fatherhood Initiative holds a Fatherhood Summit in Washington on June 7-8.
How, precisely, the state can promote something as personal and private as a parent's relationship with his own children (let alone whether it should) is seldom explained. But if government fatherhood programs sound somewhat nebulous, there is a more concrete side to our leaders' discovery of fatherhood. In 1998, President Clinton signed the ominously-named "Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act" and announced a "new child support crackdown ... to identify, analyze, and investigate [parents] for criminal prosecution." On the campaign trail Al Gore called for jailing more fathers.
In Virginia, a commission dominated by lawyers, judges and feminists moves to increase child-support obligations. In Alabama the government calls fathers "dogs" and announces increased measures to hunt them down.
< It might not be necessary for government to promote fatherhood if only
government would stop destroying it.
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