Charles M. Blow praises men who step up

On this Father's Day, thoughts from contributor Charles Blow about growing up without a dad: I know what it feels like to miss a father, the hole it leaves in a boy where his dad should be. My parents split when I was five. The part of my father that the breaking of our family didn't take, his alcoholism did. I experienced him primarily as an unpredictable apparition who occasionally stopped by in the middle of the night, waking us, reeking of booze, talking loudly and breaking our peace, on his way home from a night out. But I was lucky. A constellation of other men stepped into the void he left — grandfathers and uncles, neighbors and coaches providing the guidance and correction, the modeling of composure and possibility that boys need, the kind that can only come from a man like the ones they will become. I have always wanted that for all boys similarly situated: a community of men to bridge their way. So, when I came across an organization, Son of a Saint, in New Orleans, that does just that — and primarily for boys in even greater need than I was — I was moved. The organization largely serves boys whose fathers have passed away or been locked away. It was founded in 2011 by Bivian "Sonny" Lee III, whose own father had played for the New Orleans Saints, but died when Sonny was three years old. He has made it his mission to transform the lives of boys like the one he was. Mentoring boys and young men. …