By, Hipolito Navarrete, Managing Editor/Publisher
Fathers are obviously very important in the life of their children, many of them are lost without them, and although they can also become the anti-hero of many youth, they may be the healthy obstacles a youth has as they make decisions that they don’t understand consequences of. Those decisions whose consequences are much more detrimental than a young and inexperienced mind can imagine need the buffer a father can provide. A healthy father can mitigate the consequences of the choices an inexperience youth will make, even as we get older. A caring father will risk the dislike of their children to make sure they develop a moral compass that will not only keep their children safe, but also help contribute to a civil, compassionate society. A father is a shield that all children need, and now we are experiencing how a misguided and sick individual like Stephen Miller aided by powerful racists like Jeff Sessions and shielded by folks in institutional power like this administration will do when they are given the opportunity.
Society has created many blocks for healthy relationships to evolve and as children grow up and see the challenges our fathers must tackle in order to provide for our well being, it is a daunting proposal to be a “good” father, and some give up. Many of our fathers were indoctrinated to do all on their own, and that children can be a burden, but those that did not give up, those that carried their children to a better life, are an example of the heroes we need.
Immigrant fathers have one think in common; they acted on the hope that there may be a better place that would allow them raise a family or just a place where they could find more opportunities to find their place in this world.
So as we celebrate this father’s day, we need to consider those children that are now incarcerated in the Walmart that has now become “Camp Trump.” A place where those kids who had a father or a mother who acted as both father and mother, are now suffering because of those in this country that have used their religious fervor to justify their hate. We are what we do, and in this father’s day we have become the opportunity for those that would hurt others because of their fear and their inadequacies.
In this father’s day, we must look at what is happening and look at the deepest part of ourselves and see what we must do to recover the moral imperative that this country was founded upon, and also bring to light all the immoral people that corrupted those ideals; the religious zealots, the morally corrupted politicians, the opportunistic business men that saw gold in oppression.
As we see what has happened this father’s day, we must commit to act, there is not much more room to ignore and enable those whose whole focus is to hurt those they hate; there are many Stephen Millers in this world, and the evidence of what happens when those are ignored and dismissed is now being felt by those whose world was destroyed by a country who still practices a perverted version of manifest destiny.
This father’s day, lets awaken and act, the ballot will be here soon, use it while it is still available.
