I mentioned in a previous post that I'm constantly scouring the internet looking for resources. While searching "absentee fathers", I came across an article about a speech Obama gave in 2008.
~Addressing a packed congregation at one of the city's largest black churches, Sen. Barack Obama invoked his own absentee father to deliver a sharp message to black men Sunday, saying, "We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception."
~
In an address that was striking for its bluntness and where the candidate chose to give it, Obama directly addressed one of the most delicate topics confronting black leaders: whether absent fathers bear responsibility for some of the intractable problems afflicting black Americans. Obama noted that "more than half of all black children live in single-parent households," a number that he said has doubled since his own childhood.
~
"Too many fathers are MIA, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes," Obama said to a chorus of approving murmurs from the audience. "They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it."
~Accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, who sat in the front pew, the presumptive Democratic nominee laid out his case in stark terms that would be difficult for a white candidate to make, telling the mostly black audience not to "just sit in the house watching 'SportsCenter,' " and to stop praising themselves for mediocre accomplishments.
~"Don't get carried away with that eighth-grade graduation," he said, bringing many members of the congregation to their feet, applauding. "You're supposed to graduate from eighth grade."
Obama's themes have also been sounded by comedian Bill Cosby, who has stirred debate among black Americans by bluntly speaking about an epidemic of fatherlessness in black families while suggesting that some black people use racism as a crutch to explain lack of economic progress.
~Obama's themes have also been sounded by comedian Bill Cosby, who has stirred debate among black Americans by bluntly speaking about an epidemic of fatherlessness in black families while suggesting that some black people use racism as a crutch to explain lack of economic progress.
"We also need families to raise our children," he said at Sunday's service. "We need fathers to realize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception. That doesn't just make you a father. What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."
~Amen, Mr. President. Amen to that.
