David Gray Ross, 33° Elect
Commissioner, Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement
1011 Ponytail Palm Circle, Oviedo, Florida 32765-6992

The more things change, the more they remain the same. As a child, in order to develop into a responsible adult, I needed the strength, insight, encouragement, and direction of my father. But when my father died suddenly of a heart attack, I was alone. Fortunately, the men of the Order of DeMolay took charge of my life and provided the encouragement, guidance, and financial support which permitted me to attend college and become an attorney. Today, millions of young people are lost with little or no support to help them develop into responsible adults. Take a moment and imagine what our nation, let alone our world, would be like if there were enough responsible adults to take charge of children's lives and point them in the right direction. In discussing the problem of gangs recently with Justice Department officials, the thought occurred to me that when I was a young man, I belonged to a gang—the Order of DeMolay. I belonged for all the same reasons young people belong to gangs now—to develop self-esteem, to be accepted by peers, to feel the strength, protection, and support of companions. The difference, of course, is that the leadership of DeMolay taught positive lessons and encouraged values we all support. In my job as the Commissioner of the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, I superintend a national program with more than 60 thousand workers who spend every day of their lives bringing hope and support to America's children. While we are doing well, there is so much more to be done. Fortunately, we are entering into partnerships with major charitable corporations to provide support to young parents—to teach them parenting skills, to teach them how to handle their finances, to teach them job skills, and to teach them responsibility. But it is not enough. The 1996 Welfare Reform Bill permits my office to enter into partnerships with our communities of service, like the Masonic Order, to help provide social service resources to our nation's young parents. We recently announced that last year we collected 15.5 billion dollars in child support on behalf of our children—that's almost double the amount collected in 1992. But money is not enough. We need fathers to come home and enter the lives of their children. Parents may despise one another, but, by and large, most parents love their children. And remember, children do not belong to their parents—they belong to themselves, yet they do need the love and support of both parents to get ahead. And, if parents are not available, they need the love and support of people like you to enter their lives and provide the leadership requisite to good upbringing. Come home Daddy—your child needs you.

For myself, I am convinced that the lessons learned at the altar of DeMolay have led me down the right paths when living my own life and raising my own children. That's why I know that fathers or other responsible adults need to be involved in the lives of our nation's children. It seems to me that we must continue to reach out to those children in need—in need of financial support, in need of emotional support, in need of recognition and encouragement—and that's what I call upon all of us to do. Daddies need to come home. They need to involve themselves in the lives of their children. They need to be with their children and show them their love.

David Gray Ross is a Deputy Member of the Supreme Council of the Order of DeMolay and a member of the Scottish Rite in Washington, D.C. He served for 16 years as a Circuit Court Judge in Prince George's County, Maryland, and was a Member of the Maryland Legislature before, and a Juvenile Court before that. He currently serves as the Commissioner of the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement.