Our future our children

There are hundreds of millions of children all around the world like David who cry themselves to sleep every night because "Daddy Doesn't Live Here Anymore", the title of a song I wrote many years ago. Eminem does a far better job in his brilliant biographical song (forty-two million hits can't be wrong) but I am glad I didn't have to go through the pain he went through to write When I'm Gone, my own pain was hard enough.

Believe me it is really hard not to let Hailie's (Eminem's ten year old daughter) words in the song bring you to tears:

Daddy it's me, help ... I followed you Daddy. You told me that you weren't leaving. You lied to me Dad, and now you make mummy sad, and I brought you this coin, it says Number One Dad, that's all I wanted ...

Every child wants a Number One Dad, but often has to settle for far less and in many cases, no Dad at all. Fatherlessness is the number one problem of the western world. Of course the problem of fatherlessness is being exacerbated by the anti-male legal and family court system which seems to be a problem most prominent in the western world. The media are often willing accomplices in the derogation of men as much by the sin of omission as well as commission.

A classic case in point can be found in Dr Elspeth McInnes’ article in Online Opinion on Tuesday 16 November. She asks a very good rhetorical question to start her article. "Do you remember what you were doing when you heard the news that a man had thrown his four year old daughter, Darcey Freeman, off Westgate Bridge in Melbourne on January 30, 2009? It was a shocking event which brought to a close a protracted custody dispute between the separated parents".

Let me pose a question for you today on International Mens Day. "Do you remember what you were doing when you heard the news that a woman had killed her 22 month old son Oliver Garcia by strapping the boy to her body and jumping of the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne on June 4, 2008?" You will rightly scratch your head and say, "I never heard about that story". It’s called selective reporting. It’s a pity that Elspeth’s story doesn’t help the cause of gender balance but continues the feminist Marxist media tradition that all men should be demonised.

Miranda Devine in her brilliant article asks, "Why are all men made to feel like Fiends?" She says,

Demonising men won't prevent child abuse. In the interests of children, we women must force ourselves to reclaim the notion of male innocence. The male protective instinct, after all, is one of the most crucial safeguards of childhood."