Cause and Effect World

Father’s Day - Hallmark Holiday or a bit more complicated?

The Samantha Clemens Show
Sundays 4-6 pm
WMFO Medford 91.5 FM
live stream www.wmfo.org

What is Father’s Day to you?  Is it a day to celebrate with your father, with your kids?  Do you do a big barbeque, give Tom Russert’s book ‘Big Al’ with plenty of bearhugs all around?  Or do you have a more distant relationship with this holiday?

If you are one of millions of people who grew up without your father in your life, is this a day to suppress the question, why dad?  Why did you disappear?

We’ll explore these questions, along with the ’state’ of fatherhood today.

We’ll be playing some music to go along with the continuum of feelings about fathers, some happy, some not so.  Two songs that caught our attention are:

Father, performed by Trik Turner

“Can you remember
How you use to jab your fingers into my chest
And tell me how stupid you thought I was
And how I’d grow up to be worthless-
I was only 9 and I can recall every single time-
You raised your hand to me
No matter how hard I try to forget
I can’t erase it from my memory…”

Father, performed by LL Cool J

Chorus:

“(all I ever wanted)
All I ever wanted
(all I ever needed)
All I ever needed
(was a father)
was a father
(that’s all)
That’s all!
(all I ever wanted)
All I ever wanted
(all I ever needed)
All I ever needed… was a father
(was a father)”

Father’s day is celebrated today in Panama, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, as well as the USA.

We will also listen to War News Radio:

This week on War News Radio, a second attack on Samarra’s al-Askariya Mosque - one of the holiest Shi’a shrines in Iraq - sets a new tone on the civil conflict. Listen now to this report.

We also hear about how the U.S. military’s sensitivity training prepares its troops for daily life in Iraq. Listen now to Alex Imas’s report.

Finally, we visit an anti-war activist training camp for college students. Listen now to Wren Elhai’s report.

These stories, plus the week’s war news, from War News Radio.