Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USA Today Network: I learned a lot on my dad's Wisconsin farm. We need fathers back in kids’ lives.
I still see my dad, pushing a wheelbarrow up and down the length of our barn, feeding his cows with his little boy atop the corn pile to help. This is how we learned to work.
I hear myself crying as he comes running after I’ve fallen in the farmyard, and feel him dust my pants off with a smile. This is how we learned he’d always be there, and to get back up.
In my months of becoming a father, I’ve faced a flood of memories, and emotions. But also, strong feelings about the broken state of fatherhood in our country, a problem suddenly more urgent to me than any other.