“Well you can tell everybody…I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man.” Aloe Blacc

Happy Father’s Day from The PolidayReport!

Father’s Day has been met with considerable controversy almost since its inception.  According to History.com, Father’s Day underwent major challenges with naysayers feeling that fathers did not have “the same sentimental appeal” as mothers.  Case and point, Father’s Day became a national holiday 58 whopping years after Mother’s Day at the hand of President Richard Nixon in 1972!

Fathers, today we salute you.  Our culture often pokes fun at wanting “half” from a man’s means, but the truth of the matter is that every person on this Earth has half–half of a father’s genes that created us into the people we are today.

Father’s Day is about the celebration of the chromosomes fathers have contributed to walking, talking beings that matter–it is about the love they have shown, the care they have provided, the lessons they have taught, the sayings they have rendered, the strength they have shown, the embraces they have given, the masculinity they’ve presented, the security they have ushered, and the examples of manhood that they are.

Father’s Day is as much about a dad’s smell as it is about the fleeting memory of what it used to be.  It’s as much about his having an education as much as it is about his lack of one.  It’s about fathers’ game-time rituals and living room chairs and barbecuing skills and obnoxious laughs.  It’s about those barely talkative dads that always share a lot, but in a few powerful, potent words…or gestures.  Father’s Day is about those dads that work day in and day out to support their families and the ones that are only home on weekends so they become virtual strangers to the households they build.

Father’s Day is about men.

Father’s Day is about men some of us never got the chance to know, but think about the possibilities of the encounters especially on Father’s Day.  It is about that unfamiliar face morphed into the reflections that stare back at us when we look in the mirror.  It is about anomalous personalities we inherited from Fathers, gone too soon, that other family members don’t quite understand.

Father’s Day is as much about the jail house visit as much as it is about sitting on the church pew holding dad’s hand or sitting on the floor of the musalla next to dad before salat or prayer begins.

Father’s Day is about love!

Father’s Day is not about single mothers taking care of children for whom they are obligated.

It is not about finding every discrepancy and fault in fathers who have yet to embrace fatherhood.

It is about finding forgiveness.

Happy Father’s Day!

The Brothers of Masjid William Salaam–Norfolk, VA, The Brothers I’ve looked up to in the  W.D. Muhammad / Nation of Islam ummah (community/ nation), Brother Karim–stepped up/ stood in, Kasib Azeez–The Provider, Chad Mensah–brother-friend,  LaMonte Bullock–everything, Eddie James–Brother-in-Law. My male teachers: Mr. Bonds–elementary school principal, Mr. Cook-middle school science teacher, Mr. Foley-middle school math teacher, Mr. Riddell–middle school band teacher, Mr. Elston Fitzgerald–high school band teacher, Mr. Roosevelt Moseley–high school history teacher, Mr. Bob Davenport–high school world history teacher, Coach Conley–high school gym teacher / track coach, Mr. John Edwards–high school assistant principal / saw my oratory potential, Professor Gary Baker–VSU Political Science Professor /friend, Dr. Wallace McMichael–VSU Political Science Professor / friend, Dr. Murel Jones–VSU Political Science Professor, Dr. Raymond Griffin–Graduate School Professor, Dr. Clarence Penn–Graduate School Professor, Superintendent Ruffa–Graduate School Professor, The men of Virginia State University, Mr. Tavis Smiley, Mr. Alphonso Tyre–colleague / friend, President Obama, all of the heroic, historical, honorable old and young men I love-past, present, and future…

May today, June 15th, 2014 be the start of an extra-special Father’s Day for each and every father.  Today we celebrate you!