WEST
PARK
CITY
OFFICIALS
JUNE 2013
www.communitynewspapers.com
WHO’S WHO In City Government Mayor Eric H. Jones, Jr.
305-669-7355
WE DESPERATELY NEED OUR FATHERS By Mayor Eric H. Jones Jr.
A little boy and his father visited the country store; upon leaving the store the owner of the store offered the little boy some free candy. "Get a hand full of candy,” the merVice Mayor chant said to the boy. The boy just stood Felicia M. there looking up at his father. The owner Brunson repeated himself, "Son, get a hand full of candy, it’s free." Again the boy did not move continuing to look up in the face of his father. Finally, the father reached into the candy jar and got a hand full of candy and gave it to his son. Commissioner Thomas Dorsett As they walked back home, the father stopped and asked his son why he did not grab a hand full of the free candy. The boy with a big smile on his face looked into the face of his father and said "Because I know that your hand is bigger than mine. Commissioner Almost 75% of American children livSharon Fyffe ing in fatherless households will experience poverty before the age of 11, compared to only 20% of those raised by two parents. Children living in homes where fathers are absent are far more likely to be expelled from or drop out of Commissioner school, develop emotional or behavioral Rita “Peaches” problems, commit suicide, and fall vicMack tim to child abuse or neglect. The males are also far more likely to become violent criminals. In fact, men who grew up without dads currently represent 70% of the prison population serving long-term sentences. City Manager A June issue of Family Circle W. Ajibola Magazine contained results from a Balogun recent national survey of fathers. It had some interesting results:
94% believe that building a family is the hardest and most important thing a man can do. 71% say fatherhood is more demanding than they expected, while 88% say fatherhood is more rewarding. 87% say the rewards of fatherhood trump those of career, and 89% approve of men leaving fast-track careers to spend more time with family. 90% say becoming a father made them want to be a better person and role model for their children, while, 75% feel a weight of responsibility since they did not before.
Tonight, 40% of all American children will go to sleep in a house in which their fathers do not live. Before the age of 18, more than 50% of our children will spend a significant portion of their childhood living apart from their fathers. A generation ago, an American child reasonably could expect to grow up with a dad. Today, an American child can expect reasonably not to. Fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend in this generation. “The most urgent domestic chal-
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