The Voice of Southwest Louisiana June 2019 Issue

SWLA Health Center
You And
Your Health
Carl W. Ross, Sr. M.D.
Within the past few weeks, our nation
paused to honor our mothers on
Mother's Day. This day also honored our
Grandmothers, Aunts, Older Sisters, and other female
relatives and guardians, who cared for us as children
into adulthood.
Now our nation will pause to honor our Fathers,
Stepfathers, GRANDFATHERS, Uncles, Older Sibling
Brothers, Coaches, Mentors, and all the male figures,
who helped shape the lives of the men of our nation.
The health of our men is truly important, but today
we are going to discuss more than Men's Health.
Regardless of whomever has had a significant role
in our lives as "Father and or Father Figure, we
owe a great deal of indebtedness to them. There
is a great degree of truth in the saying that, "We are
literally standing on the shoulders of those who came
before us, and did the best they could with what
they had." (Visit brainyquote.com, azquotes.com and
upworthy.com to see other related quotes)
True, the road may have been "Rocky" in some
instances, and the provisions not all that great, but all
of us were helped by someone along our path in life.
Now the ball is in our park. It is time for men of all
ages to step up, level the playing field of life more,
and provide for our generation of young men and
women what was provided for us, and even more.
In this modern era, we hear the terminology
"Baby Daddy or Baby Mama." For obvious reasons,
we should look upon these terminologies in a very
negative way. We must not degrade the very essence
of the parents who have given life to our youth by
thinking that these are acceptable terms.
When we reach the age that we are able to
procreate a human life, we need to understand that
we should not degrade the baby's parents with less
than respectable terminology. To be very clear, with
parenthood there is tremendous responsibility. We
must realize that many of the younger parents are
stepping up to provide for their children. They are
answering the bell for each round in their children's
lives every day.
For those parents out there who are not providing
for their children, it is past time to take a good look
in the mirror and see if you like what you see. If you
don't, now is the time to change, do better, and get
involved in the lives of the human life that you have
brought into existence.
Our children did not ask to come into this world,
they are a gift from a Divine Creator, Who does not
make any mistakes. We don't have any idea what
potential that child will have if given a chance to fulfill
what they are destined to do in life.
Their chance to be the best that they can be is
truly in our ballpark. They will mimic what they see
and say what they hear. If you are positive, they will
be positive. If you are negative, they will be negative.
If our pants are sagging with the “so called style of
the day," our son's pants will be sagging. Our mothers
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June 2019 WWW.THEVOICEOFSOUTHWESTLA.COM Volume 6 • Number 11