New Franklin Book For Hegseth Children

 Franklin Copes With Daddy's Drinking takes a child's approach to dealing with alcoholism in the family

Franklin Copes with Daddy's Drinking cover

Pete Hegseth, kegmeister, judge, jury and executioner of South American boat passengers, has previously expressed his interest in the Franklin series of books for children. Franklin is a Canadian series that started in 1986. Although it's possible that Hegseth first encountered the Franklin series as a child, it's more likely that he may have found the books at his home from one of his various baby's mommas. In response to serious questions about the legality of Hegseth's extrajudicial executions without due process of alleged drug smugglers, Hegseth smugly replied with a proposed Franklin book cover that showed the beloved Canadian turtle with a bazooka shooting at men on boats. Rather than provide Americans with answers or accountability for this unprecedented use of force, Hegseth found humor in these deaths, delighting in eliding responsibility or even providing any kind of rationale for these deadly strikes. Similar to his complete abandonment of responsibility for leaking war plans and endangering troops in his use of Signal last year, Hegseth clearly echoes the Trumpian approach to really not caring, and forcing us to question whether we do or not. His unserious response to serious questions demonstrates what he thinks about the justice, due process, the rule of law, the rules of engagement, and even the lives of others. It left me wondering what kind of messages this man teaches to his children. Does he impart similar unserious responses when his own children ask questions either about his work or about his ideals? Does he deem their questions as worthy of a meme response? If he's treating his position of power with such arrogance, would he do the same for his children? 

It lead me to find this amazing title in the Franklin series, and I am recommending it to Pete's children. In this book, Franklin's daddy has a problem with drinking. At first, Franklin and his family think daddy can be funny or silly, but then daddy starts to become sleepy or angry; it's hard for Franklin to know which daddy will show up. Furthermore, Franklin learns that daddy has met some new mommies, and Franklin has to learn to love his new mommies, including the pool mommy that daddy met at a hotel, and who daddy has given a large sum of money to so that this pool mommy won't make daddy lose his job by saying "Me too." Throughout the story, Franklin learns important lessons, not from his own daddy, but from learning to set boundaries, to love his daddy, but not his drinking, and to recognize that daddy is really sick, and daddy's drinking is just a symptom of the larger character defects and issues that have been a part of daddy's life for a long time. Franklin Copes with Daddy's Drinking is an important book for children of alcoholic parents, and I recommend this book for these children. It's much better than the jingoistic Reagan-fever dreams of 1980s action heroes that have long passed.