My First YouTube Post

A little funny from this past weekend.

Happy Parents' Day, BTW!

Parents Day July 22

I noticed on my wall calendar that July 22 is marked as "Parents Day." I had never heard of this holiday before, but after a little googling I found it's a national holiday signed into law by President Clinton in 1994. I found information about it at www.parentsday.com.

I suspected this new holiday was intended to broaden the defintion of "parent" and "family," but it is apparently the opposite, as this site explains (emphasis mine):

In every culture and time period, the family has stood as the most fundamental human institution. Family is the starting point of life, the sustainer of well-being, and the school of love. A family begins with the joining together of man and woman, husband and wife, becoming father and mother – and parents. The most powerful of human bonds is the parent-child relationship.

Commitment to family has always been a core value. Tragically, however, what was often held as a common value, recognized as common sense, even understood as self-evident in the past, is sometimes not so today. ...

... our popular culture over the past several decades has emphasized self-fulfillment and self-gratification. Such focus on the self runs counter to the essence of parenthood, which fundamentally involves unconditional true love.
... [more]

So this holiday seems not about celebrating the individual roles of mother and father, but the importance of the traditional nuclear family, something worth celebrating and desperately in need of promoting.

I can't help noticing the irony that this came from the president whose wife claimed "it takes a village to raise a child," and whose said wife's book got a lot more publicity than this new holiday.

Not to complain, but can anyone tell me why Bill Clinton can institute a holiday like this and sign the Defense of Marriage Act without any significant controversy, but when George Bush calls marriage a union of a man and woman, he is called a theocratic, homophobic bigot?

Anyone?

In any case, a belated thanks to President Clinton for this holiday promoting traditional marriage and family, even though he received almost no credit or flak for it.