Memorandum to the President on national family and thanksgiving day
May it please your Excellency to be acquainted with an idea of which you know much about, but which has been crystalised to give it poignancy and relevance in building a great nation.
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The idea is that we in Ghana must institute for ourselves a National Family and Thanksgiving Day to be celebrated as a holiday, and to replace the imported Mother’s and Father’s Day observed in Ghana.
We owe ourselves a duty, as sacrosanct as life, to think for ourselves and control our growth and shape our future on principles that are native to us, and in which our strength lay as a people and nation. This memo serves that purpose by focusing our thoughts on the relationship between the family, the nation and God.
Current situation
The dynamics of social transformation, in all its plural manifestations, have impacted the family in both positive and negative ways, with the negative predominating.
Schooling, travels, pursuit of economic livelihood, westernisation of the society, religious influences and other insidious elements have begun the fractionalisation of the family unit, and that affects the nation as well.
The increasing levels of divorce, single parenthood, separations, teenage pregnancies, pornography and occult practices are signs that must compel Ghanaians to think critically of what we must do as a nation to salvage the family from further segmentation and less relevance in our life as a people.
The family and the nation
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)
The family is the cellular unit of the society and of the nation. As cells are to the body, so are families to the nation. Healthy cells make a healthy body. Healthy families make a healthy nation, and sick families make a sick nation. If Ghana does not defend the family from the ambient corrosive elements that wear it down and tear it apart, we shall lose our nation.
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Briefly, the family provides the following functions:
• The family develops moral and spiritual qualities like love, tolerance, patience, sincerity, faith, thoughtfulness and courtesy.
• The family inculcates discipline, initiative and respect among its members.
• The family provides a supportive environment for procreation.
• The family creates a nurturing ground for training children for the present and the future, as carriers of accumulated knowledge.
• The family also offers psychological and material relief in moments of need and stress.
The functions of the family are best expressed within the home, a sub-cell of the family. It is within this environment that the values needed in building any great nation are nurtured, taught, inculcated, enforced and rewarded. The relationship between the home, the family and the nation is symbiotic and inseparable. Thus, we cannot talk of building a nation without firstly building and preserving the family and the home.
Thanksgiving
Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant (Psalm 135:3).
It is axiomatic that nations are created or established by God. No human ever put gold in the soil, nor fish in the sea, nor birds in the air, nor trees in the forest. The entire creation is one mammoth divine artistry. We in Ghana have our piece of land with its treasures.
It is fitting and dutiful on our part as Ghanaians, formally and constitutionally, to dedicate a day for the nation to acknowledge and thank God for his blessings on our land, and for us to solicit His protection over us, and to seek His light for our ways, that we shall live a life of prosperity and simple righteousness.
The day
It is proposed that the Friday of the last week in August or September (pay week) be the National Family and Thanksgiving Day. August and September, from observation, are months in which food is in abundance. Major festivals too are celebrated within this period. So the nation then would be in a fiesta of celebrations, and that is good. We need the tonic of self love to strengthen our self faith and self esteem.
Friday will give the nation three days of celebration, and that is ample. Most likely, Fridays could be used to prepare and work on family houses; Saturday for family get-togethers, with Sunday for church. For Muslims, Friday would be Thanksgiving Day, while the others would be used as appropriate; Adventists shall have Saturday as Thanksgiving Day. In reality, the day would be anytime between Friday and Sunday; it does not matter which, provided we understand how we want to observe it in Ghana.
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Prospects
What will be the impact of the proposal on the nation?
1. Families shall seek to know their roots and history; from whence they came and why they settled where they did.
2. Families shall know why they bear the names they do and their meaning.
3. Families shall prepare their ancestral lineages and pass on knowledge to future generations.
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4. Families shall settle inter-personal disputes within, and locate and protect their properties, and rebuild the aging family houses.
5. Families shall formulate plans for the education of children and maturity into life.
6. Families shall connect across seas. For instance, Vanderpuijes could connect with the Netherland; Bruces with Scotland/England, and so on. There are Sawyers in Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria. Who and where was the first Sawyer?
7. Families shall know their maternal and paternal relations and children shall grow with an expanded horizon of social network and significance.
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8. Families will establish legitimacy for unwanted children, children born out of wedlock, orphans and any unfortunate circumstance surrounding a child. As these meetings take place throughout the nation, with the joy of Ghanaians arriving home from overseas to reconnect with their roots, there will be massive healing of wounds, hurts and any breaches that have occurred over years. The nation will be revitalised and energised to carry on its forward march to prosperity and better life for all. Ghana will gain immeasurably, and we shall be a better breed of people; love and respect shall permeate the society and check evil tendencies amongst us.
Conclusion
Ghana has voted for change. This is one of the seminal ideas that shall promote the change we so desire in Ghana. May it please your Excellency to cogitate on the memo herein, and take the best decision for the country. Accept, Sir, my compliments, as your servant.