Why are there more school shootings now than ever before?
We’ve talked about many reasons. I think one of the biggest reasons: Dads. Or lack of dads.
When Moynihan wrote “The Negro Family: A Case for National Action” in 1965, 25% of black kids were born without a dad. And it was a call to action! Today 72%. How sad is that!
Of all races, 72% of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers. 60% of all rapists. 70% of juveniles in state institutions grew up in single- or no-parent situations. And these are kids with NO dads. There are also many dads who may be “present” but are absent or violent or alcoholic or whatever.
POVERTY is not a predicte of crime. It’s lack of dads
Let me say here, if you’re a single mom, this does not mean that your kid is destind to be awful or a murderer or a delinquint or a dropout or a terible person, goodnss NO!
But it means you have to intentional.
Intentional about finding male role models in your kids life. And being aware of wounds that will exist from not having a present dad. But I want to stress it’s not a guarantee by any means that your kids will be ruined or worhtless to society! I mean this as awareness and a call to be inteientonal about finding positive male role models, which can come fom a million diffent direction. I had a dad. And I had many male role models that each added something to my life.
Bruce Filer was dying of cancer and he organized a “Council of Dads”; a group of men who each brought something to the table to mentor his kids. HE ended up not dying, but the Council of Dads remain. My kids have a Council of Dads. Everyone should.
Anyway, we focus on guns and depression and isolation and dropping out of school and all the rest, but what comes LONG before that? The home. A broken home. A chaotic home. An unstable home. An unloving home.
This is Dr. Farrell, author fo The Boy Crisis:
Without dads as role models, boys’ testosterone is not well channeled. The boy experiences a sense of purposelessness, a lack of boundary enforcement, rudderlessness, and often withdraws into video games and video porn. At worst, when boys’ testosterone is not well-channeled by an involved dad, boys become among the world’s most destructive forces. When boys’ testosterone is well channeled by an involved dad, boys become among the world’s most constructive forces.
We’v talked before about the Ancient Greek Polis. There’s no good translation in our language. We call it a city-state, but it’s so much more than that. Victor Davis Hanson:
The Greeks thought of the Polis as an active, formative thing, training the minds and characters of it’s citizens…The training of virtue, which the medieval state left to the church, and the Polis made it’s own concern, the modern state leaves to God knows what.
Maybe you’ve heard the line from Aristotle, “Man is a political animal.” That’s very poorly translated. The real line is, “Man is a creature who lives in a Polis.” Meaning, the Polis, the community, his family and culture is the only framework that man can fully realize his spiritual, moral and intellectual potential. Not in isolation.
And the root of that is the home.
James Wilson, one of our Founding Fathers, he wrote a pamphlet in 1790, “Of the Natural Rights of Individuals” and it’s all about marriage and the history of marriage in ancient times. In the middle of it he not only quoted Cicero, but he quotes it in Latin. He didn’t’ translate it because everyone reading it knew what he was talking about, “Prima societas in ipso conjugio est” Translation: The first bond of society is marriage, the next, our children, then the whole family and all things in common.”
So, marriage, family, community.
Break down on the first point – marriage – and society won’t survive.
An anthropologist in 1934 studied 86 civilizations and concluded, “In human records there is no instance of a society retaining its energy after a complete new generation has inherited a tradition which does not insist on nuptial continence”
Strong marriage.
Marriage is hard. It’s a lot of work. But there’s nothing more important.
My wife is 38 weeks pregnant. We been asking people advice on how to raise a girl. The number one piece of advice: Spend Time. Just be there. Be present.
!
I would argue that this is the least talked about/most important issue in our country. It’s the root of so many other issues. Dads.