What does Father’s Day mean to us this year? The same as others? I don’t think so. Perhaps, neither do you.

Have we ever longed more for a day to be meaningful and true to its title? Have we ever wanted more for fathers to be available in unlimited numbers to shepherd families, schools, hospitals, restaurants, wherever people gather together seeking connections with others, who might possibly understand their misgivings, their fears, their loneliness in the midst of crowds, inner poverty in the midst of material largesse?

Is there any Moses today to lead us into a Promised Land of Peace -- a land where war is an anomaly, too serious a business, with lives lost, limbs misplaced, families torn apart, creating a nation of a restive people, unsure of everything about which one could be unsure?

And what about our fathers? TV and print ads toss out gift ideas from ties to diving equipment. Deep down, we might find them mining for gifts, divorced from cash registers and wrapping paper. Words of respect and love from children, and everyone’s working together to live within a budget; an inspiring homily during the liturgy, reassuring dads that they share the Father’s work, and are appreciated by Him, that being a success does not always mean being successful.

And what about the millions of men who are not fathers in the biological sense, members of the clergy, or single laity, who mirror the Father’s love as they put aside their own desires to care for the vulnerable, who cross their paths in the ordinary course of their days?

With all fathers, we wish our world were better, and just in time, Lee Iacocca, legendary auto executive, has written a book, co-authored with Catherine Whitney, Where Have All The Leaders Gone? to help us clarify our thoughts and begin a new path to peace, and at least a modicum of material well-being for everyone. It is a small book, about 7" x 6", 261 pages, with an excellent index.

Before getting into the book itself, let us take a detour to the Internet’s Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, where we are told Lee Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania to Necola and Antoinette Iacocca , Italian immigrants, who had settled in Pennsylvania steel making belt.

Iacocca attended Allentown’s William Allen High School, then Lehigh University in nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylavnia, earning a degree in industrial engineering. From there, he went on to Princeton University on a scholarship from the Wallace Memorial Fellowship, and then began a career with the Ford Motor Company as an engineer, but later switched into sales.

Iacocca was married to Mary McCleary in 1956, who died after decades of illness with diabetes. Iacocca, both before and after her death, became a strong advocate for diabetic patients. He married his second wife, Peggy Johnson in 1986, and they were divorced in 1987, after seventeen months of marriage, which was annulled.. He married a third wife, Darrien Earle, in 1991 and they were divorced three years later in 1994.

At Ford, Iacocca was involved with designing the Lincoln Continental Mark III, the Ford Fiesta the Mercury Cougar and Mercury Marquis. Eventually, he clashed with Henry Ford II, and was fired in 1978. He was immediately snapped up by Chrysler as its chairman.

Since Iacocca knew the company needed money, he approached the United States Congress and asked for a guaranteed loan, not for the loan itself, and was able to pay off the loan seven years early.

In 1984, Iacocca wrote his autobiography, Iacocca, which was the best selling non-fiction hardback book of 1984 and 1985.

The writer tells us his two daughters, Kathi and Lia, sons-in-law Ned and Victor, and seven wonderful grandchildren give him much happiness and keep him young.

Iacocca opens his book, Where have all the leaders gone? with this question:

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their head when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

He goes on to declare: “You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite. ‘Throw the bums out!’”

Yes, of course, but we tried that in the last election, and there’s not a lot that’s changed. The writer suggests we look at what he was taught by the nuns in his Baltimore Catechism: something about the Seven Deadly Sins.

He thinks greed heads the list for our ills in business today, but he’s rather sure that envy could be the real culprit. He explains that a CEO looks at another CEO and says:

Hey, he’s making fifty million, and I’m only making thirty million. I’m in the same industry, and I’m better than he is. I should be making sixty million.

When he was young, Iacocco writes that CEOs were the most admired people in the country, and car salesmen were the least admired. Today, car salesmen rate above CEOs.

Iacocco’s description of Ken Lay’s monumental injustice to Enron forces one to wonder how the workers harnessed their sense of outrage, and did not commit revengeful acts upon seeing their life’s savings go up in the smoke of greed.

Even after the years have passed, we are still stunned at the story: When it became obvious to him that Enron was going under, Lay did two things, Iacocco reminds us: He unloaded his own stock, making $70 million immediately. Then, he froze his workers’ stock, which was invested in their pension plans, so they couldn’t withdraw their money. When the collapse arrived, Enron’s stock was worth thirty-five cents a share. Most of the employees lost their pensions, along with their jobs.

And what about the wives and the children who were also affected?

Ken Lay had a heart attack and died before he could serve his sentence, which resulted in his wife’s being able to inherit his ill-gotten goods. Not so fortunate the employees and their families.

We need armies of good, hard-working, loving fathers on the home front to swing this ship of state into clean, calm waters, where everyone can see what is going on clearly, and will find the generosity and commitment needed to say, “We’ve had enough! Time for a change! “ (Next week, more thoughts from Lee Iacocca)

Happy, blessed Father’s Day to every man, whose life, lived with personal integrity, gives joy and hope to us women and children. May your example offer courage to every American to go forward, one day at a time, working, trusting and loving in God’s name. Amen.

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