Last week we asked you to call Esquire magazine over their anti-father Father’s Day week piece The Bad Dads Hall of Fame. In it, author Sean Cunningham writes “This is beyond dead-beat status. These ten terrible fathers have murdered, neglected, and abused their offspring. Needless to say, they won’t be getting anything for Father’s Day this year.” I noted:
Esquire is one of America’s oldest and most prominent men’s magazines. One would think that in the weeks leading up to Father’s Day, we would see some articles about the importance of fathers, the joy of being a father, and the crisis of fatherhood in the United States.
Several days later Esquire published an excellent father’s day article called What I’ve Learned About Being a Father. Esquire writes:
From lessons their dads taught them to wisdom gleaned from their own children, here’s a holiday roundup from twenty influential men as they explore the meaning of fatherhood.
One of Esquire’s writers went back through many of the interviews they’d done with prominent people over the years and picked out quotes from them about their fathers or their experiences as fathers. One of the most touching ones was from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who was interviewed in 2008. Gorbachev said:
I was just a boy. My father was going off to fight in World War II. We were all saying goodbye to him. It was very emotional. Everyone was crying. Just before he left, my father bought me some ice cream. It came in an aluminum cup. I can still remember that ice cream.
Gorbachev missed his father for the four long years he spent at the front, but his father did survive.
I’ve no idea if this article came about in part because of our protest, but I do thank all who participated. Enjoy this excellent piece here.