Some years ago, an American newspaper article, ‘Top ten TV dads who broke the mould’, caught your Eyewitness’s eye – especially the dad who charted at number 4… (Drum roll, please!)… Homer Simpson! He certainly was a dad who broke the mould; actually, he blew the mould to smithereens! We’ve all cracked up at Homer’s ridiculous and borderline insane behaviour, but I guess we all have moments when we glance at our own dads and go, ‘Phew! Thank God I don’t have Homer Simpson for a dad!’
Of course, having Homer around might be useful to hassle that teacher who picks on you every class (read: emotionally scar him/her into giving you the best grades), or that annoying prefect who just won’t give it a rest! But, then again, for Homer to actually show up at something as mundane as a PTA meeting would be entirely out of character. So, once again, you might say a quick prayer of thanks for your father, who turns up at all of your meetings, properly attired and with an actual interest in your future.
But it shouldn’t take these bizarre cartoon references for you to appreciate your father. It shouldn’t even take Father’s Day to remind you of how important your father is. Showing your dad you care should be something you do every day. It should come to you as naturally as breathing, or as eating. And not just because fathers are generally the breadwinners of the family – and the reason you have something to eat in the first place!!
So yes, of course, you gotta do something special for dad today. And don’t just post your gift in the mail, or make a quick phone call – that’s downright lazy! Take the gift in person, and say, “Happy Father’s Day”, as you give him a hug, or better yet, cook a special meal, or just spend some quality time catching up with him.
And don’t just limit this feeling of sharing and caring to today. How much does it cost to tell your parents every day that you love them? Absolutely nothing – but it can mean a whole lot to them. And if you got some issue with your parents, don’t hold a grudge from now till eternity, because – let’s face it – you’re not going to be around till eternity. Your parents ain’t gonna be around forever, you ain’t gonna be around forever, nobody’s gonna be around forever. So who’re you trying to impress with your ‘superior grudge-holding skills’?
You’re just hurting yourself and two of the only people in the world you can be 100% sure have your back – no matter what.
So, let’s praise fathers today!
…sugar workers
Enmore Martyrs’ Day should’ve reminded the Guyanese people of the debt owed to our sugar workers for bringing us into the modern era with some degree of dignity. 1948 was a time when BG (British Guiana) was, without ANY irony, called “Bookers’ Guiana”: Sugar was Guyana, and Guyana was sugar. So, it was when sugar workers in the Caribbean protested the hardships of the Great Depression that England sent a Royal Commission, which was in Guyana when sugar workers were shot and killed at Leonora in 1939.
And after another Commission followed the Enmore 1948 killings, they recommended implementation of the 1939 recommendations, and we got universal franchise and the 1953 elections!! Henceforth we could practice a democracy that wasn’t restricted to the “big ones” – but to every Guyanese adult!! So, with all the fat talk we hear today from the “elites”, it was the lowly sugar workers who made their fat talk possible!!
Let us all praise sugar workers – even as they remain at the bottom of the ladder.
…whistleblowers
Daniel Ellsberg, the Govt Analyst who released the Pentagon Papers back in 1971, which brought down the American Presidency, is dead at 93. He didn’t think it right that his Govt should lie to its people.
