{"id":615,"date":"2009-11-19T14:02:02","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T12:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=615"},"modified":"2015-04-04T14:04:05","modified_gmt":"2015-04-04T12:04:05","slug":"a-million-men-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/a-million-men-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"A million men at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was little, I heard about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Naturally, I asked my parents when Children’s Day was. They laughed and said: “Every day is Children’s Day.” So it must seem to supporters of the women’s movement, who have spent the last hundred years fighting for equal rights, equal pay and equal respect, that there is such a thing as a men’s movement<\/a>, which celebrates International Men’s Day<\/b> on November 3 in Europe and today, November 19, in North America.<\/p>\n

It turns out there is a Children’s Day (on November 20), proclaimed<\/span> by the UN as a way of drawing attention to the health and education of children in poor countries. In a similar way, the UN supports Men’s Day as a way of focusing on how men are socialized and on how important they are to their families. It’s a chance for men to reflect on<\/span> their own role models<\/span> and to think about being better role models themselves.<\/p>\n

A lot of men need to do this. Of the 2.3 million inmates<\/span> in US state, federal and local prisons, 91 percent are men<\/a>. The US Department of Justice estimated in 2001 that if incarceration<\/span> rates continued, 5.9 percent of white men and 32 percent of black men in America would be in jail at some point in their lives.<\/p>\n

This thinking was also behind the Million-Man March<\/b> on Washington, DC, in 1995 \u2014 a demonstration of several hundred thousand African-American men who listened to motivational speeches by religious and political leaders about how to be better fathers and contribute more to their communities.<\/p>\n

In 1997, a group called the Promise Keepers<\/b> held a very similar event for (mainly white) men, attracting a similar-sized crowd. The Million-Man March was organized by the Nation of Islam<\/span>, while the Promise Keepers are a Christian organization.<\/p>\n

According to an old saying, “A few bad apples spoil<\/span> the whole barrel<\/span>.” In the case of men, it’s more than a few who are arrogant, chauvinistic, self-serving<\/span>, violent or criminal \u2014 but it’s not most.<\/p>\n

Outdated<\/span> thinking, in some cases, turns men into victims<\/span>. Some points to consider:<\/p>\n