The pace of change of our culture is placing extraordinary pressure on our families. One of the greatest challenges facing Bermuda is, therefore, the social consequence of families in decline.

The family is the primary unit of society. A country will rise no higher than the strength of its families. The strengthening of the family and home is of paramount importance in building bridges for the future. One religious leader and philosopher said repeatedly: "No success in life can compensate for failure in the home."

As we contemplate the future, we need to strengthen the sense of responsibility and acceptance of the vital truth that fatherhood and motherhood carry with them tremendous and lifelong obligations. Parents prepare the way be it for good or evil.

Let us begin to teach with increasing sincerity and skill the wondrous nature and beauty of parenthood, the joy of bringing new life into the world and the importance of guiding and sustaining that life to make it meaningful and productive.

Much of what happens in life is a matter of attitude. There is no greater responsibility on this earth than that of being parents to children. Children's main source of learning is through relationships. Hence, our children are a reflection or products of home.

It isn't the place, the real estate that determines the quality of the home. It isn't the opulence of the dwelling or the race or the brilliance of the occupants. In most cases, it's the parents that make the difference. It is the men and the women who are responsible for guiding their children into becoming productive citizens.

Far too many parents opt out and as a direct result we have far too many of our young people in prisons. The social and financial costs to the inmates and to the community are staggering. All of those inmates in prison are the products of homes, the place where behaviours should be learned, where standards should be taught, where values should be established. Parents should stand as teachers, as providers, as defenders and as the dearest friends of their children.

The ability to beget children has nothing to do with the ability to bring them up. The child who isn't loved knows it. There is no trauma so excruciating as parental rejection. Parental rejection can effectively wreck a human life.

Yet there persists the notion or superstition that 'advantages' are a substitute for affection.

The finest of these advantages a family can offer can't be found in a department store, a car dealer's showroom or a prep school. The only priceless one is the sense of belonging to a loving family.

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal many years ago and it recounts a story of an African-American young man who had become a prominent lawyer. It said:

One of his happiest childhood memories was a ride with his father in his old clunker of an automobile. A shiny red Cadillac whizzed past and his dad remembered how pretty and expensive it was. He then asked his father why do Cadillacs cost so much money? Is it the name? His dad responded that the name was part of it, but the reputation also has a lot to do with and what that name means. It's like your name. It says that you are a product of the Tuckers, Smiths and the Astwoods, and that you are so very, very special.

This prominent lawyer said he has carried this reputation and praise with him ever since. And he has never looked to another human being for his worth. His father convinced him that he didn't need to. He said even in his lowest times, he believed he was special. He hence came to realise that it is far easier to build a reputation from scratch than to improve one that has been damaged. Family and/or personal reputations, good or bad, have real staying power.

There are statistics to prove boys raised outside of intact marriages are, on average, more than twice as likely as other boys to end up in prison. Some authorities in the USA believe that each year spent without a dad in the home increases the odds of future incarcerations.

Boys who grow up in a fatherless household are of greater risk that they will end up in prison.

A child born to an unwed mother is usually a life-long tragedy. It is a lifelong tragedy for the child who grows up without a father. It is a life-long tragedy for society on whose ledger that child so often becomes a liability.

We cannot destroy the family without undermining the strength of the country. The family is a bridge to the future. Many more children in our homes must grow up to be responsible, contributing citizens. Bermuda must not only be strong in our economic, financial and political affairs, we also must be strong in our moral values and in the integrity of our citizens.

If we have honesty, love, respect, tolerance and the willingness to peacefully resolve conflict within individual households, this will be undoubtedly spread and become a habitual or an established value in the wider community. This will allow us to build positive bridges that will endure and carry us as a country to better and nobler heights among the countries of the world.

Finally, it bears reminding us all that: "No success in life can compensate for failure in the home."

Sir John Swan was Premier of Bermuda from 1982 to 1995.