WANTED! Tall Men, Sun-Crowned, Who Live Above the Fog …God Give Us Men!
A Look at Trends in Family & Fatherlessness In America and Words for Today by a 19th Century Novelist, Josiah Gilbert Holland
Last year, I posted a poem by Josiah Gilbert Holland. It’s worth reading again, and again.
Holland was a best selling novelist, poet, columnist and someone America depended on for comfort and guidance in the years after the devastations of the Civil War. Although some not be familiar with Holland, he was completely viral in the 19th century.
Holland sold more books in his lifetime than Mark Twain did in his. Emily Dickinson was a close friend. Holland wrote the eulogy and best-selling biography of Abraham Lincoln after his assignation that did not go without controversy. Holland didn’t stay in favor long after his unexpected death, which is may be why so many are not familiar with his work today.
In Wanted, Holland expresses a sense of urgency in the midst of social turmoil of the mid-19th century but these timeless words stand just as well for today as they did during his lifetime. Laying out qualities, which upon reading, we should all hold important not only for our families but of our country, and our political leaders.
Wanted!
God, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
“Wrong Rules the Land and Waiting Justice Sleeps”
In The Numbers
Holland’s poem is a call to all of humanity but rings out for the men of this land, to the fathers we need. Let’s look at the numbers from the 2022 census and other recent polls that have focused on family in the USA. So many points are glaringly ominous. If Americans are prioritizing their happiness in jobs and friends over marriage and children we are in for an accelerated fall of our civilization.
In 1970, 67% of Americans ages 25 to 49 were living with their spouse and one or more children younger than 18. By 2021 that share has dropped to 37%!
A 2023 Pew Research pole found 40% of respondents in American are pessimistic while 25% were optimistic about the institution of marriage and the family. Of course, American’s are pessimistic in other areas too.
When those same respondents were asked what it takes to lead a fulfilling life, job satisfaction ( 71% ) and friendship ( 61% ) were chosen over marriage and parenthood.
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Marriage and divorce rates for U.S. women, age 15 and older, declined from 2011 to 2021. While Forbes cites the most common reasons for divorce are things like lack of commitment, infidelity, conflict and so on.
Presence of Parents
First, it should be noted that recent birth rates continue to sway but historically we are in a decline. From 54.9% of women 15 to 44 ever having a child in 2011–2015 to 52.1% in 2015-2019.
The same decline is seen for men becoming fathers. From 2015-2019, 39.7% of boys and men aged 15 to 44 had fathered a child, compared to 43.8% during 2011–2015.
Let’s look at the 2022 Census of children ages 0–17, it shows:
70% lived with two parents (65% with two married parents and, 5% with two unmarried cohabiting parents)
22% lived with their mothers only
5% lived with their fathers only
4% lived with no parent.
Among the 70% of children living with two parents:
92% lived with both of their biological or adoptive parents
8% lived with a stepparent.
~6% of children who lived with two biological or adoptive parents had parents who were not married.
Unmarried Mother Births
The percentage of births to unmarried women of all ages has stayed at 41%. The breakdown in percentage of births to unmarried women are as follows:
Women 15–17 : Increased from 95% in 2011 to 98% in 2021
Women 18–19 : Increased from 86% in 2011 to 90% in 2021
Women 20–24 : Increased from 64% in 2011 to 68% in 2021
Women 25–29 : Increased from 34% in 2011 to 41% in 2021
Women 30–34 : Increased from 22% in 2011 to 26% in 2021
Women 35–39 : Increased from 20% in 2011 to 24% in 2021
Women 40 + : Increased from 22% in 2011 to 28% in 2021
Fatherless in America
It’s an epidemic. After seeing trends like, less of a priority of marrying and having children, less overall children being born, more mothers having children outside of marriage we also see the dramatic results of fatherless homes for roughly 24% of the kids not living with their father. That equals to approximately 18.3 million children across America who live without a father in the home. Divorce causes some, but approximately 40% of children are born to unwed mothers. Children from single-parent families are twice as likely to suffer from mental health, behavioral problems, higher prevalence of suicide attempts and substance abuse.
Children with an actively engaged father are more likely to do well in school, less likely to spend time in jail and daughters are less likely to have a child of their own during adolescence.
Father Facts - Fatherhood in Crisis 2024 provides a breakdown of the stats:
Children living without a father in the home has more than doubled from 11% in 1968 to approximately 24% in 2022.
30% of single and absent fathers are never married.
50% of single fathers and 30% of absent fathers are divorced.
As of 2022...
- 20.1% White/Caucasian children lived with a single mother only.
- 31.2% Hispanic children lived with a single mother only.
- 57.6% Black children lived with a single mother only.
Of the 10 U.S. states with the highest fatherless – single mother households – 8 or 80% are in Bible-belt states.
Children who live apart from their fathers account for...
63% of teen suicides
70% of juvenile incarcerations
71% of high school dropouts
85% of youths in prison
85% of children with behavioral disorders 86% of rapists
90% of homeless and runaway children 90% of children living in poverty
100% of gang members
What do we do when we are faced with a problem? Basically, we deal with it in one of four ways:
We Avoid Them
We Allow Them To Deflect Us From Our Goals
We Can View Our Situation As Hopeless and Give Up
We Work Through the Issue to a Healthy Resolution
Do you see that this is an issue where we are rapidly approaching the threshold of #1 no longer being an option?
Options 2 and 3 are no option at all.
So that leaves us with option 4. Thankfully, many groups are starting to make the role of fatherhood their main focus but this is a cultural concern, one for our entire society.
Ask yourself, what can you do to help ?
𝓝𝓲𝓴𝓴𝓲
Just a remider I wrote this, not AI. Mistakes will be found but hopefully you can appreciate the struggle. ヾ( ̄▽ ̄)Bye~
Encore, Josiah Gilbert Holland
KATHRINA
More human, more divine than we—
In truth, half human, half divine—
Is woman, when good stars agree
To temper with their beams benign
The hour of her nativity.The fairest flower the green earth bears,
Bright with the dew and light of heaven,
Is, of the double life she wears,
The type, in grace and glory given
By soil and sun in equal shares.True sister of the Son of Man:
True sister of the Son of God:
What marvel that she leads the van
Of those who in the path he trod,
Still bear the cross and wear the ban?If God be in the sky and sea,
And live in light and ride the storm,
Then God is God, although He be
Enshrined within a woman's form;
And claims glad reverence from me.So, as I worship Him in Christ,
And in the Forms of Earth and Air,
I worship Him imparadised,
And throned within her bosom fair
Whom vanity hath not enticed.O! woman—mother! Woman—wife!—
The sweetest names that language knows!
Thy breast, with holy motives rife,
With holiest affection glows,
Thou queen, thou angel of my life!Noble and fine in his degree
Is the best man my heart receives;
And this my heart's supremest plea
For him: he feels, acts, lives, believes,
And seems, and is, the likest thee.O men! O brothers! Well I know
That with her nature in our souls
Is born the elemental woe—
The brutal impulse that controls,
And drives, or drags, the godlike low.Ambition, appetite and pride—
These throng and thrall the hearts of men
These plat the thorns, and pierce the side
Of Him, who, in our souls again,
Is spit upon, and crucified.The greed for gain, the thirst for power,
The lust that blackens while it burns:
Ah! these the whitest souls deflour!
And one, or all of these by turns,
Rob man of his divinest dower!Yet man, who shivers like a straw
Before Temptation's lightest breeze,
Assumes the master—gives the law
To her who, on her bended knees,
Resists the black-winged thunder-flaw!To him who deems her weak and vain,
And boasts his own exceeding might,
She clings through darkest fortune fain;
Still loyal though the ruffian smite;
Still true, though crime his hands distain!And is this weakness? Is it not
The strength of God, that loves and bears
Though He be slighted or forgot
In damning crimes, or driving cares,
And closest clings in darkest lot?Not many friends my life has made;
Few have I loved, and few are they
Who in my hand their hearts have laid;
And these were women. I am gray,
But never have I been betrayed.These words—this tribute—for the sake
Of truth to God and womankind!
These—that my heart may cease to ache
With love and gratitude confined,
And burning from my lips to break!These—to that sisterhood of grace
That numbers in its sacred list
My mother, risen to her place;
My wife, but yester-morning kissed,
And folded in Love's last embrace!This tribute of a love profound
As ever moved the heart of man,
To those to whom my life is bound,
To her in whom my life began,
And her whose love my life hath crowned!Immortal Love! Thou still hast wings
To lift me to those radiant fields,
Where Music waits with trembling strings,
And Verse her happy numbers yields,
And all the soul within me sings.So from the lovely Pagan dream
I call no more the Tuneful Nine;
For Woman is my Muse Supreme;
And she with fire and flight divine,
Shall light and lead me to my theme.