A FATHER'S DAY WISH

Now also posted at: myamericanopinion.com

It’s Father’s Day as I write this post, which begs the question: How would your father or my father look at where America has taken itself today? How many times have you said: “The founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they saw what is happening to our country today?”    

Having been born in Pennsylvania two years before Joe Biden back in 1898, my dad recognized early on that he needed to get an education if he wanted to avoid spending the rest of his life in the coal mines.  His forte was mathematics, but he also had a fundamentally strong religious background; he managed to work his way through a college in Connecticut and to earn a degree in mathematics with a minor in theology.  And, of course, the depression hit… just after he made a major navigational invention and went into business. 

Licking his wounds, he took a job teaching mathematics at a private boarding school in Lake Placid, New York.  He then earned his Master’s Degree in education from Cornell and his Doctorate at Columbia.  During this period, his working associates convinced him into going to work for the Indian Service as an educator; that’s where he spent the vast majority of his life… teaching and mentoring Native Americans on the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni reservations. 

He believed in helping the disadvantaged, and it was largely through his efforts that Native Americans through the United States today are pulling themselves out of poverty as a result of their education and self-governance.  His ancestors, like my maternal ancestors, were in this country as early as 1636.  He had a strong streak of patriotism in him and he never strayed from his religious background. 

It is because his attributes were passed down to my brothers and my sister that I am now writing this post.  I have to think that, should he arise from the grave today, he would quickly jump back in and pull in piles of earth over his casket behind him.  People today sin openly, where they used to bury their heads in shame if caught.  People today are uncouth, vitriolic, mean-spirited, dishonest and totally selfish.  The only time the word “God” is mentioned anymore is in conjunction with the words “damn you.” 

As for me, my wish for yesterday and today and tomorrow is that my fellow mankind would stop today’s merry-go-round of life long enough to realize that we may not have had cellphones, computers or video games in those days… but life was indeed better.  Life was centered around God and godly ideals.  You could leave your doors unlocked at night and you didn’t have to pack a gun to feel safe. 

Even better, you could get a healthy night of sleep without taking 16 pills, because you always knew in your heart and soul that your day had been a good day in every respect, and that you had conducted yourself according to that vast store of guidance and knowledge stored in the Holy Bible.    

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.