Dear Editor,
It is here again. The day we refer to as ‘Father’s Day.’ But I humbly submit that this special day is being used for male bashing by just too many influential people in our society. Father’s Day was first observed in the United States of America, in June 1910. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a National Father’s Day in the USA. Then in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day. Over the years, Father’s Day has been observed in well over 100 countries around the world, including Guyana. Regrettably, in more recent years, Father’s Day, like Christmas Day, is being attacked and abused.
Father’s Day was intended to be the special day when the good fathers and father figures were pampered and told how much they were loved. It is not the day to throw all the focus on the bad fathers, as so many influential individuals do. But that is exactly what keeps happening more and more. In the very same way in which there is a Grinch who tries to steal Christmas, there is a Grinch who is trying to steal Father’s Day. These otherwise good folks get in the media, they get on their pulpits and say all what the deadbeat fathers are doing and not doing, completely ignoring the good fathers, whom Father’s Day is intended to be all about. For these folks, the good fathers become invisible on Father’s Day. They are ignored. So the good fathers are now more like “The Little Boy who Santa Claus Forgot.” They are ‘the big boys who Pastor Clause forgot. What a shame! What an injustice, What a disgrace. This confounded nonsense must stop.
There are 52 Sundays in every year, with just one Sunday set aside to celebrate the good fathers we are blessed with. So why should Grinch be allowed to steal this special day? And for those who might be ready to make a rebuttal saying how many bad fathers there are, let me say right away that precisely because there are so many bad fathers, it is more reason to celebrate the hero fathers we are blessed with. I say, totally ignore the bad guys on this special day. There are 51 other Sundays in the year to attack the bad fathers. Stop the madness on Father’s Day. Let’s join the many sane people who continue to do the right thing and celebrate the good fathers on Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day 2015 to all the good fathers in Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Francis Quamina Farrier
