http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/018.html
This child was born in Minnesota in 1898. When he was six, his father died. The family was impoverished. His mother pushed him and his two siblings to do well in school. They also had to go to work when they were small to help support the family. The child washed windows, swept floors, and took other jobs that were available. In his spare time he took long walks in the mountains, and developed a love of the wilderness
He was bright in school, and so when he finished high school, he received a partial scholarship to college. He earned the rest of his tuition and board by taking jobs as a janitor and mowing lawns. On Sundays, he liked to preach in church. After graduating from college, he worked as a schoolteacher for two years. Then he applied to and was accepted to Columbia law school in New York City. To get there, since he could not afford a train ticket, he hopped the rails, like a hobo.
He performed brilliantly in law school, and afterward obtained a job at a large New York law firm. Then he taught law at Coumbia and then Yale law schools. When he was 25, he got married and had two children. It was the first of four marriages, but this first one lasted more than 30 years. He was a cold and harsh father however, and a later wife described him as insecure. Another accused him of ignoring her.
When he was thirty-six, in 1934, he left teaching to work for the new Securities and Exchange Commission established by FDR as part of the New Deal. After that, when he was only 40 years old, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to serve on the Supreme Court, where he served longer than any other Justice, almost 37 years.
Some have called his prolific but arguably unimpressive opinions in the Court those of a crusading liberal. Others describe him as a free speech absolutist, and a libertarian Democrat. Others have recognized that he stood primarily for the individual constitutional liberties, and actually had an intense fear of big government. One of his law clerks described him as a man of action, who should not have been a judge but would have done better as a governor or senator.
He wrote the following words in a radio essay that aired in 1951:
"These days I see graft and corruption reach high into government. These days I see people afraid to speak their minds because someone will think they are unorthodox and therefore disloyal. These days I see America identified more and more with material things, less and less with spiritual standards. These days I see America drifting from the Christian faith, acting abroad as an arrogant, selfish, greedy nation, interested only in guns and dollars, not in people and their hopes and aspirations... We need a faith that dedicates us to something bigger and more important than ourselves or our possessions. Only if we have that faith will we be able to guide the destiny of nations, in this, the most critical period of world history. This I believe."
This man, one of America's most controversial and complex Justices, and unquestionably one of the most influential men in the twentieth century, was U.S. Supreme Court Justice
William O. Douglas, a boy from a "fatherless home."
Aug 30, 2009
Aug 23, 2009
Fatherless Child - Expose Number Seventeen
http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/017.html
This child was born in the 1860s to the fourth wife of a government official. As a young child, he was very timid and afraid of things such as the dark, and often thought that there were thieves hiding in his house in the night.
He was generally a good child, but he did not always follow his parents' rules. He was not a good student, and did not like to study. He did, however, like to read, and on his own read various things that interested him, which often had nothing to do with what he was supposed to be studying. He occasionally got into trouble. For example, when he was still quite small, he started buying cigarettes, which put him into debt to the boy who was selling them to him, so he stole a piece of his brother's jewelry to pay off the debt.
When he was 13 years old, he got married to a 13-year-old girl who could not read or write.
Several years later, when he was 16 years old, and his wife was pregnant, his father died. He later wrote in his biography that on the night his father died, instead of attending to him, he snuck away to another room in the house to have sex with his then-pregnant teenage wife. The baby his wife later gave birth to died after only a few days, and he always felt guilty after that, thinking it had something to do with his own father's death or his lust, because he had awakened his child bride from a sound sleep.
When he was 18 his mother encouraged him to go London to study law and train as a barrister. He did not want to do this at first. He had barely passed his entrance exams to get into college, and had done miserably there. He also had hated the kind of education he had been forced to endure as a child. But finally he relented. He and his wife went to England where he studied law, and while he managed to pass, never felt that he fit in and remained a fairly mediocre student.
After law school, he and his wife returned home, where he worked as a lawyer. When he was in his mid-twenties, he accepted a job doing legal work in a country in Africa. While he was there, he became involved in activism against injustices.
To fight against injustices, he invented a technique of non-violent civil disobedience. It became so successful that he used it over and over again against wrongs he perceived in the educational system, the courts, and the political system. He urged people not to fight directly but to boycott products, to go on strike, to march, and to refuse to pay taxes. Among the many customs and laws he came to abhor and fight against was arranged childhood marriages, which he decided was a cruelty that should not be imposed on children. He hated all forms of child abuse, oppression, organized religion, and even industrialization.
By the end of his long, and rather strange life, he had become famous through his activist work, and for assisting the people of his country to attain independence. He became known throughout the world for the technique of non-violent civil resistance to tyranny, and for his advocacy for education. This eccentric individual who became so well-known and accomplished so much, did so following a childhood that by the standards of today likely would have got him yanked by DCF into foster care, if not juvenile detention or some kind of boot camp for teenage boys. He was, of course,
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka Mahatma Gandhi, a boy from a "fatherless home."
This child was born in the 1860s to the fourth wife of a government official. As a young child, he was very timid and afraid of things such as the dark, and often thought that there were thieves hiding in his house in the night.
He was generally a good child, but he did not always follow his parents' rules. He was not a good student, and did not like to study. He did, however, like to read, and on his own read various things that interested him, which often had nothing to do with what he was supposed to be studying. He occasionally got into trouble. For example, when he was still quite small, he started buying cigarettes, which put him into debt to the boy who was selling them to him, so he stole a piece of his brother's jewelry to pay off the debt.
When he was 13 years old, he got married to a 13-year-old girl who could not read or write.
Several years later, when he was 16 years old, and his wife was pregnant, his father died. He later wrote in his biography that on the night his father died, instead of attending to him, he snuck away to another room in the house to have sex with his then-pregnant teenage wife. The baby his wife later gave birth to died after only a few days, and he always felt guilty after that, thinking it had something to do with his own father's death or his lust, because he had awakened his child bride from a sound sleep.
When he was 18 his mother encouraged him to go London to study law and train as a barrister. He did not want to do this at first. He had barely passed his entrance exams to get into college, and had done miserably there. He also had hated the kind of education he had been forced to endure as a child. But finally he relented. He and his wife went to England where he studied law, and while he managed to pass, never felt that he fit in and remained a fairly mediocre student.
After law school, he and his wife returned home, where he worked as a lawyer. When he was in his mid-twenties, he accepted a job doing legal work in a country in Africa. While he was there, he became involved in activism against injustices.
To fight against injustices, he invented a technique of non-violent civil disobedience. It became so successful that he used it over and over again against wrongs he perceived in the educational system, the courts, and the political system. He urged people not to fight directly but to boycott products, to go on strike, to march, and to refuse to pay taxes. Among the many customs and laws he came to abhor and fight against was arranged childhood marriages, which he decided was a cruelty that should not be imposed on children. He hated all forms of child abuse, oppression, organized religion, and even industrialization.
By the end of his long, and rather strange life, he had become famous through his activist work, and for assisting the people of his country to attain independence. He became known throughout the world for the technique of non-violent civil resistance to tyranny, and for his advocacy for education. This eccentric individual who became so well-known and accomplished so much, did so following a childhood that by the standards of today likely would have got him yanked by DCF into foster care, if not juvenile detention or some kind of boot camp for teenage boys. He was, of course,
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka Mahatma Gandhi, a boy from a "fatherless home."
Aug 16, 2009
Fatherless Child - Expose Number Sixteen
http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/016.html
This child's mother fled from his biological father just after giving birth, because of the man's cruelty and regular abuse of her. She moved back home to live with her own parents in another state, and obtained a divorce before the child was even a few months old.
His mother had come from a middle-class family and attended a girls' college after high school. While she was there, she had met the child's father, a wealthy man who was six years older than she was. She fell in love and left college after her first year to marry him, but from the honeymoon on, he regularly beat her, flying into jealous rages at the slightest provocation.
Once the child was born, she knew that she had to muster the courage to get away, and get the child away from him. It is unlikely that today, with the father's rights laws the way they are, that she would have succeeded in this endeavor. But fortunately for her and the child, in those days she was able to do so and cut him out of their lives.
Later she remarried a kindly paint salesman, and renamed the child entirely. The child did not learn anything at all about his father until he was a teenager. He had, however, inherited his raging temper, which he had to work hard to control and overcome. But he did so, successfully, thanks in large part to the peaceful and happy family life that his mother was able to give him, and the help and role model that his stepfather and others around provided. In learning to keep himself calm and controlled, the child also developed an exemplary character, including a scrupulous insistence on honesty and integrity for which he became known throughout his life.
The child attended public schools where he was active in sports, especially football, which he later continued in college, where he majored in political science and economics, and then law. After college, he joined the Navy and served in World War II, where he had several brushes with death. Afterward, he entered politics, becoming elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 13 terms.
A journalist** said of him, "I remember him as a leader, first and foremost. He was the right man for this country, at the right time, in the most extraordinary crisis in our constitutional system since the Civil War."
The U.S. Secretary of State*** said of him, "I think he saved the country."
This child, whose decency, honesty, courage, and unity helped this country heal from a difficult period in its history was the 38th President of the United States,
Gerald R. Ford, a boy from a "fatherless home."
This child's mother fled from his biological father just after giving birth, because of the man's cruelty and regular abuse of her. She moved back home to live with her own parents in another state, and obtained a divorce before the child was even a few months old.
His mother had come from a middle-class family and attended a girls' college after high school. While she was there, she had met the child's father, a wealthy man who was six years older than she was. She fell in love and left college after her first year to marry him, but from the honeymoon on, he regularly beat her, flying into jealous rages at the slightest provocation.
Once the child was born, she knew that she had to muster the courage to get away, and get the child away from him. It is unlikely that today, with the father's rights laws the way they are, that she would have succeeded in this endeavor. But fortunately for her and the child, in those days she was able to do so and cut him out of their lives.
Later she remarried a kindly paint salesman, and renamed the child entirely. The child did not learn anything at all about his father until he was a teenager. He had, however, inherited his raging temper, which he had to work hard to control and overcome. But he did so, successfully, thanks in large part to the peaceful and happy family life that his mother was able to give him, and the help and role model that his stepfather and others around provided. In learning to keep himself calm and controlled, the child also developed an exemplary character, including a scrupulous insistence on honesty and integrity for which he became known throughout his life.
The child attended public schools where he was active in sports, especially football, which he later continued in college, where he majored in political science and economics, and then law. After college, he joined the Navy and served in World War II, where he had several brushes with death. Afterward, he entered politics, becoming elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 13 terms.
A journalist** said of him, "I remember him as a leader, first and foremost. He was the right man for this country, at the right time, in the most extraordinary crisis in our constitutional system since the Civil War."
The U.S. Secretary of State*** said of him, "I think he saved the country."
This child, whose decency, honesty, courage, and unity helped this country heal from a difficult period in its history was the 38th President of the United States,
Gerald R. Ford, a boy from a "fatherless home."
Aug 9, 2009
Fatherless Child - Expose Number Fifteen
http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/015.html
This child did not even know that he had been given a last name until he was an adult, long after he had adopted another one for himself. He was born in a cabin on a tobacco plantation. His mother was a cook. His father took no interest in either the child or his mother, and never lived with either of them. The boy was not formally educated as a young child, and in fact, he was not even permitted to attend school. Instead, he worked.
The child's clothes were ragged. He never had toys, and he did not play. He slept on the floor of his mother's shack, and worked as soon as he was old enough to be useful. Sometimes he carried other children's books to school for them and daydreamed about being able to learn to read. One day his mother found a spelling book, and he studied from it on his own.
When the boy was 10, he was given permission to attend school, provided that he still worked. So he went to work in the salt mines, starting each day at 4 a.m. so that he could go to school in the afternoons. A few years later, he got a job as a household servant, doing the same thing -- working in the mornings and evenings, and going to school in the afternoons. When he was 16, he walked 500 miles to another town in order to attend another school where he would be able to live and study full-time, and be permitted to pay his way there by doing menial tasks.
Early on, he developed a personal philosophy of self reliance. In later life he would say that there was no period of his life that was devoted to play. Every day of his life was occupied in some kind of labor.
But he persevered. He worked, and he excelled in his studies. In fact, he learned so well that after a time he became an instructor at the school.
He married his childhood sweetheart, but when she unexpectedly died, he married again, ultimately having two children.
Subsequently, he established another school for the purpose of educating children like him. He began to write papers and articles, to give speeches, to meet people, to make friends, and to get involved in politics. To raise money for his new school, he wrote an autobiography which was so impressive that he was invited to dine at the White House in Washington, D.C. Wealthy philanthropists read his story, "Up From Slavery", and supported his school. He was invited to tea with the Queen of England. He became an advisor to the president on various matters of national policy, notably education and race relations.
The school he founded is now known as the Tuskeegee Institute. His name, including the last name his mother gave him, and the second last name that he chose for himself, is carved on a monument in his honor. Schoolchildren everywhere in America know who he is:
Booker T. (Taliaferro) Washington, a boy from a "fatherless home."
This child did not even know that he had been given a last name until he was an adult, long after he had adopted another one for himself. He was born in a cabin on a tobacco plantation. His mother was a cook. His father took no interest in either the child or his mother, and never lived with either of them. The boy was not formally educated as a young child, and in fact, he was not even permitted to attend school. Instead, he worked.
The child's clothes were ragged. He never had toys, and he did not play. He slept on the floor of his mother's shack, and worked as soon as he was old enough to be useful. Sometimes he carried other children's books to school for them and daydreamed about being able to learn to read. One day his mother found a spelling book, and he studied from it on his own.
When the boy was 10, he was given permission to attend school, provided that he still worked. So he went to work in the salt mines, starting each day at 4 a.m. so that he could go to school in the afternoons. A few years later, he got a job as a household servant, doing the same thing -- working in the mornings and evenings, and going to school in the afternoons. When he was 16, he walked 500 miles to another town in order to attend another school where he would be able to live and study full-time, and be permitted to pay his way there by doing menial tasks.
Early on, he developed a personal philosophy of self reliance. In later life he would say that there was no period of his life that was devoted to play. Every day of his life was occupied in some kind of labor.
But he persevered. He worked, and he excelled in his studies. In fact, he learned so well that after a time he became an instructor at the school.
He married his childhood sweetheart, but when she unexpectedly died, he married again, ultimately having two children.
Subsequently, he established another school for the purpose of educating children like him. He began to write papers and articles, to give speeches, to meet people, to make friends, and to get involved in politics. To raise money for his new school, he wrote an autobiography which was so impressive that he was invited to dine at the White House in Washington, D.C. Wealthy philanthropists read his story, "Up From Slavery", and supported his school. He was invited to tea with the Queen of England. He became an advisor to the president on various matters of national policy, notably education and race relations.
The school he founded is now known as the Tuskeegee Institute. His name, including the last name his mother gave him, and the second last name that he chose for himself, is carved on a monument in his honor. Schoolchildren everywhere in America know who he is:
Booker T. (Taliaferro) Washington, a boy from a "fatherless home."
Aug 2, 2009
Fatherless Child - Expose Number Fourteen
http://www.thelizlibrary.org/fatherless/014.html
This child was born on Christmas Day on a farm in England in the 1600s. He never knew his father, who died three months before he was born. His mother remarried a church minister when he was two years old, and they sent the boy off to live with his grandparents, where he was treated like an orphan. The boy was bitter about this, especially after three half-siblings were born. The grandfather with whom he lived was harsh and abusive too, and when the grandfather died when the child was ten, he left him nothing in his will. The boy's stepfather also died about that time, and so he and his grandmother ended up moving back into his mother's household, where he did not get along well with his half-siblings.
The boy had a temper, and apparently also had what we would consider to be "emotional issues". So before long, his mother sent him off to live with another family and attend a school in a town five miles from their home. The boy was not happy. He did not like school. He did not like his situation. When the school reported to his mother that he was "idle" and "inattentive" to his studies, she pulled him out of school to come home and help manage the farm. He hated that too, and proved himself to be quite lazy and untalented at this.
Finally, when he was 17, his mother's brother convinced the mother to let him return to grammar school to try again. This time while at school, he was sent to live with the headmaster. There is not much evidence that he did particularly well at first. He apparently got into a number of schoolyard fights. At some point, though, he started to apply himself, and by the time he graduated -- at an age which was much older than the other students -- he had risen to first in his class. With his uncle's encouragement and help, he entered a university intending to pursue a degree in law, through a program that now would be similar to a work-study financial aid program -- he received a salary by being a servant to other students.
One day, while he was attending the university, he purchased an astrology book, and was dismayed that he did not understand the mathematics in it. Although his major at the university was philosophy, he decided to take some classes in math, and on his own also started reading books in mathematics. He tried trigonometry first, but when he found that he did not understand that, he started with basic math and geometry. Then, once he had mastered the basics, he discovered that math was, finally, something he liked, and also was good at.
In fact, he was so good at it that within a few years, he had learned everything that could be taught in mathematics at the university. He got a job as a professor of mathematics, and before long, had developed the mathematics of the day far beyond what anyone else had done before, laying the foundations for differential and integral calculus.
In his lifetime, through his mathematical work in optics and celestial mechanics, he established the theories, principles, and bases we use today in the modern sciences of physics and astronomy. He is well-known for his Theory of Universal Gravitation and his Laws of Motion. He was the first scientist to demonstrate that the same principles that govern the motion of objects in space also govern the motion of things on Earth. He was the first person in England to be knighted based on scholarly achievement, rather than prowess on the battlefield. He is the author of a book known as the Principia -- recognized as the most important scientific work ever written. Considered by some to be the greatest scientist who ever lived, this late-bloomer, one of the most influential men in all of history, was
Sir Isaac Newton, a boy from a "fatherless home."
This child was born on Christmas Day on a farm in England in the 1600s. He never knew his father, who died three months before he was born. His mother remarried a church minister when he was two years old, and they sent the boy off to live with his grandparents, where he was treated like an orphan. The boy was bitter about this, especially after three half-siblings were born. The grandfather with whom he lived was harsh and abusive too, and when the grandfather died when the child was ten, he left him nothing in his will. The boy's stepfather also died about that time, and so he and his grandmother ended up moving back into his mother's household, where he did not get along well with his half-siblings.
The boy had a temper, and apparently also had what we would consider to be "emotional issues". So before long, his mother sent him off to live with another family and attend a school in a town five miles from their home. The boy was not happy. He did not like school. He did not like his situation. When the school reported to his mother that he was "idle" and "inattentive" to his studies, she pulled him out of school to come home and help manage the farm. He hated that too, and proved himself to be quite lazy and untalented at this.
Finally, when he was 17, his mother's brother convinced the mother to let him return to grammar school to try again. This time while at school, he was sent to live with the headmaster. There is not much evidence that he did particularly well at first. He apparently got into a number of schoolyard fights. At some point, though, he started to apply himself, and by the time he graduated -- at an age which was much older than the other students -- he had risen to first in his class. With his uncle's encouragement and help, he entered a university intending to pursue a degree in law, through a program that now would be similar to a work-study financial aid program -- he received a salary by being a servant to other students.
One day, while he was attending the university, he purchased an astrology book, and was dismayed that he did not understand the mathematics in it. Although his major at the university was philosophy, he decided to take some classes in math, and on his own also started reading books in mathematics. He tried trigonometry first, but when he found that he did not understand that, he started with basic math and geometry. Then, once he had mastered the basics, he discovered that math was, finally, something he liked, and also was good at.
In fact, he was so good at it that within a few years, he had learned everything that could be taught in mathematics at the university. He got a job as a professor of mathematics, and before long, had developed the mathematics of the day far beyond what anyone else had done before, laying the foundations for differential and integral calculus.
In his lifetime, through his mathematical work in optics and celestial mechanics, he established the theories, principles, and bases we use today in the modern sciences of physics and astronomy. He is well-known for his Theory of Universal Gravitation and his Laws of Motion. He was the first scientist to demonstrate that the same principles that govern the motion of objects in space also govern the motion of things on Earth. He was the first person in England to be knighted based on scholarly achievement, rather than prowess on the battlefield. He is the author of a book known as the Principia -- recognized as the most important scientific work ever written. Considered by some to be the greatest scientist who ever lived, this late-bloomer, one of the most influential men in all of history, was
Sir Isaac Newton, a boy from a "fatherless home."
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