Dad is key

"I hasten to acknowledge that there are too many husbands and fathers who are abusive to their wives and children and from whom the wives and children need protection. Yet modern sociological studies powerfully reaffirm the essential influence of a caring father in the life of a child--boy or girl. In the past twenty years, as homes and families have struggled to stay intact, sociological studies reveal this alarming fact: much of the crime and many of the behavioral disorders in the United States come from homes where the father has abandoned the children. In many societies the world over, child poverty, crime, drug abuse, and family decay can be traced to conditions where the father gives no male nurturing. Sociologically it is now painfully apparent that fathers are not optional family baggage." (James E. Faust in LDS General Conference Report, Apr. 1993, 44-45, 47)

Children need fathers

"Studies show that fathers have a special role to play in building a child's self-respect. They are important, too, in ways we really don't understand, in developing internal limits and controls in children...Research also shows that fathers are critical in establishment of gender in children. Interestingly, fatherly involvement produces stronger sexual identity and character in both boys and girls. It is well established that the masculinity of sons and the femininity of daughters are each greater when fathers are active in family life" (Karl Zinsmeister, "Do Children Need Fathers?" Crisis, Oct. 1992).

Deceived

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right."
-Thomas Paine, Common Sense

A bumper sticker I saw last week

Secrecy promotes tyranny

Listen to yourself

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."
-Steve Jobs

The Free

"No arsenal...is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."
-Ronald Reagan,
Inaugural Address 1981

Good America, Great America

"I sought the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests- and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning- and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution- and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!"
-Alexis de Tocqueville