Mark Patton's message is appended.

Hello Sue,

Here now is something different, a belated Father's Day item.  You may want to print it out to give to Kelly.  It is odd that the forwarded article arrived at this time.  Just at the end of last month, I wrote an article about the use of men throughout history as beasts of burden. In that article, I used my impressions I gained while I worked in Korea in '61 - '62, where men were the carriers of the loads, the beasts of burden on whose backs the modern Korean economy was erected.  Every brick, every material good, all that needed transportation, all at one time or another and to varying extents carried on the backs of men -- not women!

I made the observation that there appears to be a correlation between the thriving of societies and the extent to which the men in societies carry their load (but also the degree of recognition of the importance of men for that).

The sexes are different, but we should respect those differences and build on them.  It is no more possible for the average women to be physically as strong as the average man than it is for any man to become pregnant.  There are many more differences between the sexes.  We can't possibly eradicate them all.  Most are outcomes of biological constraints.  To try to eradicate them or even perhaps to blame one or the other sex for possessing them is like struggling against the forces of nature.  It is far smarter to use nature to our advantage and to exploit sex differences than to make futile, illogical, and absurd attempts to eliminate them.

As Lorne Gunter pointed out in a recent article in The Edmonton Journal, in a family that is headed by two heterosexual parents, there is a larger and more comprehensive set of skills.  That is an enormous asset, because in a wide range of problems facing a family, more things will get done.  What one person can't do, the other will be able to look after.  What either one can't do by himself, both together will be far more likely to be able to get done.

Your girls are fortunate to have such caring parents that cooperate so well.   I see that your girls have respect for their dad.  That is good and as it should be.  I love you all for it.

--Dad  

PS.  Consider that Korea has virtually no natural resources.  It must rely on labour for its exports, in trade for the goods it imports.  The labour exports were to varying degrees in the past comprised of physical export of labourers to various countries in the world (e.g.: much of the construction in Saudi Arabia was done by Korean labourers), as well as of the export of value-added goods (e.g. importing iron ore, fuel and plastic feedstocks, and exporting ships and cars;  importing textile fibres and exporting garments).

For Korea, in international commerce, labour is the basic commodity of trade with which it pays for its transactions.  It has proven to be a good receipe for development, hasn't it?  It forced  Koreans to think in terms of developing their industriousness, which requires functioning and productive families.  For Canadians, the emphasis was on developing, exploiting and exporting Canadas' natural resources -- leaving people free to fritter away their potentials in the vilification of men, ostensibly in pursuit of the establishment of equal rights.  It explains to some extent why Korean dads are so much respected, after all, they *are* Korea's resource.  Canadian dads are considered by many to be nothing more than a nuisance that is better removed from the lives of Canadian families -- what idiocy for any government to pursue such an objective with a passion, after all, aren't our dads an important national resource too?

The ironic thing about such Canadian social politics is that almost exclusively it is only men who mine the ores, drill for oil, till the soil for the crops, fell the lumber that is turned into plywood by the Japanese and into paper for the world.  Even Hitler and Stalin knew better!  They glorified the miners, farmers, soldiers, and steel workers, on whose backs their countries' economies rested.

Isn't it time that we open our eyes?