By Georgie Anne Geyer, NEA ColumnistCHICAGO -- Some years ago when I was living in Brazil, I observed a male driver stupidly and dangerously cut off a woman driver on the road along Rio de Janeiro's beautiful seaside.

Instead of swearing or chasing after him, the well-dressed lady just leaned out her car window and said to him in tones that would make a CEO quiver: "The gentleman does not have a mother?"

It was such a wonderful put-down that, unless you are Donald Trump in one of his carnivals of bad-mouthing, no one could doubt that the "gentleman" more than got the point.

For various reasons, this little story came back to me as I visited my beloved hometown of Chicago over Mother's Day weekend.

First, there is little room for doubt that far too many of the third of Chicago that is now African-American come from fractured families as between 70 and 80 percent of black children in America are now alleged to be born out of wedlock. Second, even poor African-American mothers, and especially those splendid, self-sacrificing grandmothers, are surely far superior to their men in caring for their offspring.

But the implicit message in the Brazilian case -- that the male driver had not had the advantage of a mother's cultivating and civilizing effect -- is present here in America, too. It is surely present in Chicago, despite the wondrous changes: