It’s Father’s Day once again. This year like most years, we need our fathers to be upfront and accountable because there is a tide afoot to take away affirmative action and much of the support that has been put in place to help make up for the disparities in education and opportunities that face us all as Black Americans.
Success is neither owed nor guaranteed. We must decide what our own path to success will be and how we will achieve it. To guarantee prosperity takes hard work, commitment, opportunity and perseverance in your craft. It also helps to find something you like and you’re truly good at. The way I found my path was through the guidance of my father.
Growing up, my father reinvented himself professionally a few times. He started off as an engineer then became an elementary school teacher, and in the middle of that he used his G.I. Bill benefits to become a pilot. He started New England’s first Black-owned flight school at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts, where he and my aunt Jean McGuire worked alongside each other. Together they trained many young Black pilots, who went on to become captains in many of America’s top commercial airlines today.
A father or father figure is important to a child’s development. As a father I have a special connection with my children that provides me the opportunity to share with them answers to the problems that they will encounter and it gives me the chance to provide them the tools for success that I’ve learned overtime.
It is important to not only share your successes, but to also share the lessons that you learned through your failures. Your children can benefit from those mistakes so they don’t have to fail in that same way. They can learn from these experiences and be much further along in reaching their goals.
Father’s Day is about so much more than the gifts or cards that you give to your father or you as a father you receive from your child. It’s a day to celebrate your father and an opportunity for your child to remind you of the special loving and guiding relationship you cultivate with them as they grow. As a father, every day I do my best to try to guide my children through the obstacles they face in our society. As a father of two young Black men, it is sometimes challenging. There are many dangers for them in today’s society. Through that special father/son relationship, I have been lucky enough to have help them and most the time keep out of trouble and on a productive path. When they end up in tough situations, I’m able to share with them the lessons that I learned over the years to help guide them through the tough times with the least amount of damage to them and their future. Through the years that relationship helped teach and guide me as well.
So, to all the fathers and father figures who lead with love and guidance, I say “Happy Father’s Day.” Your job is one of the most important ones in the world. Never forget that.
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