The Pain Continues This week, we felt the pain of yet another mass shooting – during a July 4th Parade in a suburb of Chicago. As obvious as it is that something needs to be done, this event will fuel the continuing debate over gun control. Pile that on to the school tragedy in Texas.…
Greetings Be There Dad Supporters! In recent weeks, Be There Dad has drawn some attention in the local and national media about our engagement of dads in local schools. Unfortunately, some of this visibility has been initiated because of the concern about school safety and security. As you know, dads add to the sense of…
Visibility With mixed emotions, in the last week or so, our organization has gotten a lot of visibility as a result of the massacre in Texas. A dads group connected to Be There Dad® responded quickly and the dads were present at a local school during car pool line for the three days following the…
The Need for Reflection Joe Ehrmann, former NFL player, ordained minister and focus of the book Season of Life, has told us that as men we need to periodically take time to reflect on our lives, to see the bigger picture and to consider how we can impact our children; rather than staying busy and…
I Still Hear It I am 67 years old. I have a good education and lots of life experience; yet, still whenever I sit down to write an article like this, whenever I speak in front of an audience, whenever I need to make a decision or try to solve a problem, I hear a…
Social scientists tell us that allowing our children to go out and play among themselves helps them to develop some skills we hope they will use as adults such as ingenuity, conflict resolution and relationship building; as well as develop character traits like acceptance, loyalty and integrity. On a recent evening I had…
It was a typical Saturday morning. Knowing I had lots of chores to do, I neither showered nor shaved. I dressed in my “grubbies” – sporting a faded warm-up with a few well-earned holes – in anticipation of the dirt and sweat I would collect throughout the day. Part of my outfit was my beloved…
A Sense of Purpose Recently, I watched a PBS concert tribute to Harry Chapin, a wonderfully gifted singer/songwriter and even greater humanitarian in the 1970s. In addition to having popular songs at the top of the charts, Harry received the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal * for his efforts to combat world hunger. Harry explained his…
Telling the Truth As a young boy, the thing I remember my parents emphasizing the most was to always tell the truth. We all heard the story about George Washington and the cherry tree along with tales of other persons of honorable character. The moral was always “tell the truth”. I suppose, like many children,…
Everyday each of us is confronted with decisions. Opportunities to move forward or not. Some decisions are large, some are small. Do my exercises or not? Practice my piano lesson or not? Salad or French fries with my burger? Wear a mask or not? Reach out to someone new or not? Love my neighbor? Push…