I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert

It May Seem Funny at  First Glance....

As of now, I am currently reading I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert. You might be reading this thinking I am making this up, but I can assure you I am not. When I first came across this book I was immediately intrigued by just reading the title and that is what led me to read this book. The genre of this book is satire. From previous knowledge I knew satire was using humor to make a comment issues in society in order to promote a change. That is why when I found myself laughing at every other line I was not surprised. But even though the topics that were addressed by the author were humorous, I realized what he was saying was not to be taken lightely. 

One of the sections in this book is title "My American Childhood." Here, he dicusses what makes up a family and the roles of each member of a family. When he started talking about fathers that is when I started to see that although what is being said may seem funny at first glance, if you think a little deeper you will see that he is making a statement. One of the first lines written about fathers is, "America used to live by the motto “Father Knows Best.” Now we’re lucky if “Father Knows He Has Children.” Yes this is funny, but the sad part is this is true. It is widely known that there are many children living today that do not have fathers or never knew of their father. Statistics show that this number is increasing and the affects on fatherless children are becoming more intense.(National Center for Fathering) 

What Stephen Colbert is saying is America has become a country that does not value the idea of family. Instead we teach the ideology of a broken home. To every child there is a mother and a father. It takes two people to produce a child. But instead of promoting family we promote having sperm donors and baby daddies that pay child support. A father is suppose to be present in a childs life and remain there throughout their life. Parenting does not mean producing the child, but being there for the child. 

On social media you see the "Father Starter Pack" which is folllowed by no image avaliable. This is a current issue that is occuring in our society today, but no one is doing anything to change this. You cannot force anyone to do something, but if you do not talk about issues such as this and try finding solutions, no one will ever learn. What we need is to get back to not only "Father Knows Best" but also "Father Stayed." And eliminating the no image available icon in association with fathers.