Governor's Fatherhood Summit
September 30, 1997
*Note: The Governor sometimes deviates from text.
I have often said that the best thing I can do for my children is to love their mother. Well, Mary Wood Beasley makes that part of fatherhood easy. Thank you, Mary Wood.
It's my great pleasure to welcome all of you to Columbia for our first ever Governor's Summit on Fatherhood. We've rounded up some of the nation's finest, most distinguished and most innovative leaders who've devoted themselves to the mission of restoring America's families.
Among them are our distinguished guests and good friends from the National Fatherhood Initiative, who have made this conference possible; their board members, Mr. David Blankenhorn, their president, Dr. Wade Horn, and the director of their Resource Center, Mr. Malcolm Williams. You'll hear from all of them today. So thank you gentlemen, and all of you for being here.
We're here today to consider the importance of fathers in our families and in larger society. And most importantly, we want to leave here with solutions to help us tangibly address the problem of fatherlessness.
Mary Wood and I have traveled every corner of this state for the past three years. And South Carolinians keep sharing with us a lot of the same struggles: crime, poverty, the need for better education.
There was a time in my career as a legislator that I believed government had the answer to these woes. I firmly believed that if we could just form better programs and fund them better, all our social ills would be resolved. But experience has taught us it's just not true.
We've seen time and time again: the roots of these problems run where government dollars canąt reach...straight back to our living rooms.
As David Blankenhorn's book and Dr. Steve Suits' report tell us...when fathers aren't around, when marriages fail, when children are born with no intention of a marriage being formed, children suffer.
Case in point: I met with a group of young men at our juvenile prison not long ago. They were behind bars for everything from drugs to manslaughter, and every one of them had grown up without a father in the home.
We talked a while about how they'd ended up there. Then I finally asked point blank: Would it have made a difference if your dad had been around...if he'd helped you with homework or played ball with you, if he'd been there to teach you right from wrong?
That's when I actually saw the tears coming. And I had my answer. It would have made all the difference.
Those kids knew deep down what the most distinguished social scientists know and what you and I know: that fatherhood is one of the most meaningful relationships in human existence.
When I think about my three children, they don't want or need a governor. They want and need a father. And no one can be a father to them except me. Their mom can't, their grandparents can't, and we know a paycheck canąt.
I know what it's like to grow up without my dad being around all the time. I came from a broken home.
But I was blessed with a father who was totally devoted to his children...who cheered the loudest at every game....who took me fishing on Saturdays. He took me to the wood shed a few times, too!
But my dad, Dick Beasley, means the world to me. It was his encouragement and his example that made it possible for me to even be standing here today.
Because when all is said and done, it wonąt be policies or programs or my victories as governor that will measure my success.
If at the end of this road, I can say that through God's grace, I loved my wife, that we loved and nurtured our children, that's when I can say my life was a success.
We're holding high the banner of fatherhood today. And we're saying to our neighbors, stand with us. Help us re-shape a consensus. Help us re-establish the absolute importance of fathers.
The tide must be turned...because truly the foundation of a civil, virtuous and prosperous people,is the family -- the family of both a mother and a father.
Thank you all for lifting that mantle with us and for being here today.