Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."
The “Father of our Country,” George Washington, was ironically not himself a father — not a biological one anyway. He was a stepfather and raised two of his step-grandchildren, one of whom was named after him. With his step-children/grandchildren and many nieces and nephews, he relished his large family and domestic life.
At 17, his stepdaughter Patsy Custis died of a seizure in his arms, and he never recovered from it. Since she was 2, he had brought her up. He was her father.
Five years ago, we welcomed a foster daughter, Zoe (not her real name), who was 4 and a half when she came to live with us. Fifteen minutes after coming into our home she tried to strangle our golden retriever. Things only got worse from there.
What had happened with Zoe’s biological mother was unspeakable, and Zoe had been severely and extremely detrimentally impacted by her abuse.
But what had not happened with her biological father, Mark (not his real name), was terribly damaging. He simply was not there, for any reason, at any time. His sole contribution, other than his sperm, was viewing her once in the newborn nursery and, unfortunately, signing his name on her birth certificate.
When Zoe was taken away from her mother, Mark was living in a condemned hotel room with his new girlfriend. The girlfriend had two older children, as well as a toddler and a baby by him, and was expecting another baby (his) in a few months.
As the stated goal of foster care is “reuniting the child with his or her biological family,”
Mark necessarily factored into Zoe’s foster care plan. Accordingly, she would now be spending two and a half hours with him, two or three times a week.
It is an untrue adage “there are no free lunches.”
As Mark did not work, he was available anytime to be picked up by an agency driver and driven to a restaurant for a long, free lunch with Zoe and her case worker. These bi- or triweekly lunch arrangements were more than amenable to him.
And they were absolutely heavenly to Zoe, who was uncontrollably jubilant upon returning from their outings. Her father, before a total stranger, was now “Daddy.”
Surely, though, wasn’t that better than returning from the mandated supervised visits with her mother, with Zoe invariably violent or hysterical?
No! Both parents were detrimental to Zoe’s mental health. To see her reeling from one extreme to the other was heartbreaking.
There is much, much more to this story. Every day Zoe was with us was both difficult and heartrending. As we discovered more about her past and how much help she would need to recover from it, we realized the inadequacy of the foster care system when it came to handling the tragic possibilities of parents who cannot or do not parent their children. We also learned first-hand of the heroes working in these programs: underpaid, overworked and yet somehow tireless.
Zoe’s story has a happy ending. After years of paperwork and hearings, she was adopted by a wonderful family. They are perfect for her, and she for them.
After leaving the “system,” she never saw her “father” again.
There is a desperate need for foster care in this country. The statistics are harrowing: Foster children average 8.3 moves between different homes before they age out of the system. Eighty percent of them exhibit mental health issues. More than one-fifth of the prison population has experienced foster care, and it factors majorly into every societal blight, from drug addiction to human trafficking. In the United States, 400,000 children are now in foster care, many of them homeless. Terrible circumstances, in critical need of attention and solutions.
And beneath it all is the crux of the problem: the essential need for parents to parent.
So, happy Father’s Day to fathers and step-fathers everywhere, who take their “job” seriously, who make it their mission to care for the children in their sphere, who show up for the umpteenth double-header or dentist appointment, bandage the neighbor kid’s knee, pay for camps and colleges, who take in foster children.
Happy Father’s Day as well to all the mentors and coaches, the teachers and leaders, who help along the way, nurturing and encouraging children, who inspire by setting a good example, who fill the gaps.
John F. Kennedy, our 35th president, took office 181 years after our first president. And the world changed dramatically. Yet, the truth of this quote by Kennedy never changes: “Children are the world’s most valuable resource, and our best hope for the future.”
Washington would certainly have agreed.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.