With Father’s Day around the corner, Eric Holder, America’s Attorney General, went to Baltimore to talk ostensibly about a “great man” and about justice in the United States.
Although Holder considers United States President Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela and Dr Martin Luther King Jr, three of the greatest men of the 20th century, he wasn’t thinking so much about them but about his own father, Eric Holder Snr, a Bajan from St Joseph.
The occasion was the commencement day ceremony at Morgan State University, a major historical black school where Dr Glenn Phillips, a Bajan, is a history professor and expert on the Africa diaspora.
As he has done many times in recent years, Holder told the graduating class of more than 900 students: “I love, admire” and “miss” his parents “each and every day”.
“I think in particular of my father – who immigrated to this country as a young boy many years ago from Barbados, who enlisted in the military during World War II when he was close to 40 years old, and who proudly wore the uniform of the United States during his service in that war,” he said.
“I think of the same great man – who was denied service at lunch counters [in the United States] and told to leave a Whites-only train car even though he was wearing the uniform of his country – a uniform of which he was proud, and which he treasured, throughout his life,” Holder recalled.
“And when I think of the duties, the rights, and the weighty responsibilities of American citizenship – responsibilities that are now entrusted to each of you – I think of my father – for whom I was named, who never lost faith in the greatness of his country even when it did not reciprocate his devotion.”
The Attorney General said his Barbadian father never wavered when it came to the American dream, which “ran so deep that he put his life on the line to defend that dream the moment it was threatened; who worked so hard, along with my mother to give my brother and me every opportunity to succeed, and who taught us, by word and deed, that this country’s true greatness lives in its highest aspirations – and in the power of every citizen to chart our nation’s course, and build a brighter future together.”
Holder routinely reminds audiences about his father, who taught him about the challenges of life and about the importance of committing oneself to ideals, values and dreams. Undoubtedly, like hundreds of millions of children across the United States, North America, the Caribbean and Europe, the AG is reflecting on his father’s life as he too celebrates Father’s Day.
Now switch scenes to Brooklyn and to another generation of Bajan fathers and their progeny in the United States.
Two prominent Bajans, Earl Phillips, the secretary-treasurer and number two official of one of the most powerful labour organisations in New York City, the 38 000 member Transport Workers’ Union that represents mass transit workers, and Dr Milton O.C. Haynes, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology and a pillar of the medical establishment in the state of New York were among a dozen honorees at the 2014 Fabulous Fathers celebration sponsored by the New York Carib News, a 30 year old weekly newspaper.
Phillips’ son, 11-year-old Alexander, represented his dad, who was absent due to an emergency trade union meeting in Philadelphia while Karyll, Dr Haynes’ daughter, spoke about her dad, who like her mother Claudette Jean Laing, was the guiding light in her life.
“My dad has been an inspirational figure in my life,” said Alexander, a middle school student in Brooklyn. “I have always looked up to him as a role model, a loving father and a friend.
“He has been there for me throughout my life, through thick and thin. From as early as I can remember my dad has been dedicated to work and career. He has instilled great values in me. He continues to guide me to be the best I can be.
“He is my hero, he’s my mentor, he’s my dad and I love him very much.”
Karyll, whose assessment of her father’s place in her life was read to the audience due to her unavoidable absence, spoke about his caring personality as a dad and his professionalism as one of America’s top ob-gyn specialists with a thriving practice in Manhattan.
Dr Haynes, a clinical associate professor at New York University School of Medicine, once led the 40 000-member New York County Medical Society.
The words of praise for the Bajan fathers were in lock step with the findings of a recent study conducted by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The scientific research showed that contrary to a prevailing myth, black fathers were more attentive to their children’s needs than white and Hispanic male parents.
Happy Father’s Day.