Coincidence or otherwise, my Daily Dilbert email had a very interesting sidebar link. Usually I ignore such links the the fear that through my IP address my email address will get tracked down and then I will be spammed to death. Mentally, I am still in the year 2000 when I had a hotmail account which had a non-functional spam mechanism, which meant that I actually had to sift through Betty Crocker discount emails and advice on increasing penis size (I don't know why I keep getting spammed with that, and viagra on 81% discount either) to get to the few emails from people who really mattered, which also would end up to be "forward or die" emails.
Anyway.
This was a find though:
Of course, since we have so many American men (and at one point of time, Ravi Shankar) running around the United States impregnating women and leaving them to fend for themselves and their children, what else can one do but put up banners and hoardings and sell CD ROMS telling people the difference between "fathering" and "father". So you have, among other things, a group of secret agents who pounce on unsuspecting men playing Frisbee with junior in the park and give them huge gift hampers to celebrate their doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Men getting gifts for not acting like jerks. Why didn't we think of this before?
Besides advising men (especially Army men) on how to become true Dads, the organization believes in starting early. The Boyz to Dads link provides for educative materials for
Dads, moms, educators, mentors, social workers, youth ministers, or any concerned adult can use this program to help prepare boys to make good choices on topics like relationships, sex, and peer pressure. Because boys learn best in a visual, interactive, hands-on environment, the Boyz 2 Dads™ interactive game format is the perfect way for you to capture their attention and then start a conversation on these important issues.
I have something to say about this, but it isn't quite forthcoming.
I was suddenly excited that maybe the US Government had programmes to improve men in every role possible - husbands, boyfriends - but to my disappointment, www.husband.org is all about links on finding our whether your husband is cheating on you or not, and www.boyfriend.org deals with shady lingerie. Wah wah.
The morning after a night full of sedate revelry, we suddenly realized that though people around us are getting married left, right and centre, that even among people 5 years older than us, we couldn't name anyone (besides this one woman) who had moved from the recreation to the procreation stage. Do people not have the time? Do people (understandably)not have the inclination? Or have people actually been failing at attempts, which is mother's nature's way of telling us that 5 years of law school have made us incapable of bringing up a sane and happy child? Like a slow genocide?
Anyway - the moral of the National Fatherhood Initiative is to remember that "Have you been a Dad today?" is not a nice way of asking if you remembered to use protection.
Happy Father's Day.
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