There is so much on your plate. So much you have to worry about as a parent: keeping your kids safe; getting them to school on time; getting ahead at the office so you can pay to send them to college.
That’s a lot. So it’s understandable if you’ve been distracted, and you’ve missed an opportunity here or there to make certain causes—certain longstanding societal injustices—your top priority. But that doesn’t excuse it. Your busyness doesn’t exempt you from the moral imperative to be and do good in this world.
We have talked before about how great fathers don’t just think about “their kids,” but of “our kids.” Well, how did you feel when you watched George Floyd breathe his last breath on that horrifying video? What did you think when you read his story?
George Floyd was a father. Did that register with you?
He had five children, including a six-year-old daughter. How old are your kids?
He had five kids who will never see their father again. What’s the longest you’ve gone without seeing yours? These innocent, promising young people—promising like your kids—who had their loving father stolen from them, now have a permanent answer to that question: the rest of their lives.
How do you feel about your kids? That’s how George Floyd felt about his kids. That’s how Sandra Bland’s and Breonna Taylor’s parents felt about them. But this discussion is so much bigger than race.
How do you think those immigrant parents felt as their kids were torn from their grasp and put in cages? (Watch this video, please.) How do you think it’s felt for parents separated from their children during this senseless, preventable pandemic? How do you think it’s felt to attend a Zoom funeral for a niece or a nephew?
It is wrong to ignore what you know is wrong. We are all in this together. As fathers, we are bound up in the fate of other fathers and mothers. We cannot close our eyes and hearts to others, just because we’re busy, or we have more immediate priorities, or we simply believe it doesn’t affect us.
It does affect us. Our kids, their kids, our world, depend on us understanding that.
P.S. This was originally sent on June 16, 2020. Sign up today for the Daily Dad’s email and get our popular 11 page eBook, “20 Things Great Dads Do Everyday.”
