Noah+D’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech

**Men, Not Children**
I look around today and what do I see? I see boys. I do not see men. There is a drought today, a drought of men. We have grown soft. There are fatherless children being raised by single mothers whose husbands have left the family. Boys who got their high school sweetheart pregnant and in a display of great immaturity, caught the first bus leaving town. There are students in this room who, after sleeping through the days classes go home to play Call of Duty through the night. The age for coming of age, it seems, for most men is being pushed back further and further; there are 30 year olds still screwing around, acting as if that they are 12. Guys use Facebook to ‘poke’ the girl that they like rather than calling up or asking, face to face, the woman they are interested in on a date. Our leaders, the very people we are supposed to look to for direction have lost their integrity and have no sense of responsibility, whenever things do not go well, they scramble pointing fingers, eager to shift the blame to the first thing they see. Fewer and fewer men have skills every man should know. I wonder how many guys in this room know basic electrical wiring? Or how to start a fire and chop fire wood? Heck, even gardening? How many of you, if you had to, could sustain yourself on your own sweat, blood and soil? Or how many know how to change a tire on their car? Because God knows that you will eventually get a flat and you are either going to be helping the damsel in distress or you are going to be the damsel in distress. Boys now are now full time absorbed in their smart phones and worry and care more for how their hair looks than they acknowledge, appreciate and respect God’s great creation. When is the last time you slept out under the stars? Boys run around in gangs, hurl insults at each other then go and tag their name on as many walls as much paint they have.

And this all needs to stop; we are in dire need of change. Men need to become men again. The time for boyhood has passed; the time for candy is over, it is time to eat meat now. It is time to sip the sup of giants. It is time for manhood.

You see growing old does not equate to growing into a man. You can live to a ripe age and still die a boy. Though related being an adult and being a man are independent of one another. It takes work in being a man and it is not easy. There are markers and life events that have been deemed, by society as check marks, building on the road to manhood. But that is not really what it’s about; there is more to it. Remember that 30 year old? He could have a nice car, he could get married and settle down in a nice house with his $200,000 paycheck and still not be a man. It is a little more than going to the gym 4 times a day and polishing up the wheels of your shiny new, lifted F-450. True men are selfless. True men are not absorbed by that thing known as ‘self’, but know and live for something far greater. True men have integrity, honor and live by their word. The mark of a real man is when he says something, follows through with it and when nobody is around he lives by it still. True men lead by example. The man is the head of the family and he is the one everyone else relies upon and looks up to. The father teaches his children, his sons and his daughters so much; he teaches them about self-respect and integrity and honor. Where is the son to look for guidance in how to be a true man if not towards his father? It is his father that shows him what it means to be a man. That is why there are so few men. Fathers abandon their wives and children. Mothers raise fatherless children that grow up not knowing manhood. Those children then go on to have and abandon their own thus completing the vicious cycle. Being a man is not about not messing up but making mistakes, owning up to them and taking responsibility for them. Let us be a nation of men.

In the America I come of age in, I wish to see more Men and less boys. I wish to see children that honor their parents. I wish to see men asking women out on dates face to face and treating them with respect. I wish for there to be no single mothers and no fatherless children. I wish for there to a sense of honor and duty among men. I wish for integrity and responsibility to be expected of them. So when you go home today, when you leave this class, lay down the your X Box controller, quit smoking dope, take up the gauntlet and bear the burden of responsibility. Learn how to change that tire. Sleep under the stars. Actually do your homework. Help your mom cook dinner- barbecue! That girl? Ask her out on a date- now. Challenge yourself, both physically and mentally. Read a book that is not Fifty Shades of Grey. Go on a run. Respect those around you and equally important, respect yourself. Walk with confidence not hubris. Become a man. And so let us become that nation of real men.

**Cite Your Sources**