This past Sun., June 21 was Father’s Day. It caused a lot of discussion on Facebook, so before writing about what happened, I went and looked up the origins of the day. What I found is that, as would be expected, there is a controversy over the origins of the day. One young lady claims she started it when her father, a Civil War veteran, raised six children without the benefit of a mother. Another man claims he founded it as a Lions Club member out of Chicago. Whatever the case, the reality is that it didn’t become an official holiday until 1972 when Richard Nixon signed a congressional resolution recognizing the third Sunday in June as the official holiday.
Fast forward to 2015 and we now have tons of single mothers (a term I abhor, but will use it as it is so apropos in this scenario) who are raising children sans husbands. Be they mothers because they never married, got divorced or are widowed, they are doing the job of raising the child by themselves.
Well just six weeks ago, on the second Sunday in May, we had a day to celebrate that activity. It’s called Mother’s Day. As anyone knows, that is the hardest day to find a place to eat without a reservation made weeks in advance. So why, if mothers get their own day, are many now trying to appropriate Father’s Day away from men? Well, listening to many of the self-serving individuals who took to Facebook to profess their reasons, it all boils down to women imposing themselves upon a holiday specifically designed for men simply because they don’t have one in their lives.
I’m not gonna mince words.
The majority of them proved that they could pick a dress better at Goodwill than they could pick a man to father their children, simply because they would never go into a store and buy the first dress they saw — but when it came to choosing the men who would be their child’s fathers, the choosiness went out the window and they took whatever they got. Now that the bad choice has proven itself true, they want to weasel out of their responsibility of that acknowledgment by professing that they can be both mom and dad, lifting themselves out of any culpability for their own decision. It’s a wonderful illusion, but it is also not a reality.
If anything, I compare those women who want to celebrate Father’s Day to the scandalous Rachel Dolezal. They can dress up in the part by putting on the clothes. They can even put on the act. But in the end, those women will never be fathers just like Rachel will never be Black! And truthfully, if a man showed up in their lives yesterday, they would have been singing the praises to him of Happy Father’s Day the same way Rachel can go back to being white whenever she chooses.
Corporate America has even gotten into the act. Hallmark via their Mahogany Brand, a line of greeting cards targeted specifically towards the African-American consumers, offered a number of cards wishing mom, “Happy Father’s Day.” Now pay attention folks. The cards are aimed specifically at Black folks! So while many of you believe that those thoughts are your own, you are the target of marketers whose entire efforts are based on getting you to spend your money the way they want you to. There is also a commercial made by Angel Soft toilet paper that has some of the wimpiest men and women talking about their mothers for Father’s Day. There they are boohooing, crying and acting as if six weeks prior they couldn’t have done the same thing for mom when it was her turn. Rather, they waited until Father’s Day to profess all she has done for them. If the intent was to make me want to buy their product, Angel Soft failed. I will never buy anything from them and their commercial, just like their toilet paper, can be flushed into the sewer where it belongs.
CONTACT: westside2day@yahoo.com | www.arlenejones.blogspot.com
