Posted by Editor on June 20, 2008 5:15 PM to Career News and Resources
Career News and Resources: In Father's Day Message: Obama Calls for Greater Paternal Responsibility in Black Community
By Hazel Trice Edney
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, in a Father's Day message at Chicago's Apostolic Church of God, exhorted Black fathers to be more responsible in raising their children.
He based his exhortation on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, according to Matthew 7:24-25, in which Jesus said, "Whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock."
In prepared remarks for the Sunday morning message, applauded by the congregation and its pastor, the Rev. Byron Brazier, Obama zeroed in on familiar territory. He was abandoned by his own father when he was just a toddler.
"Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it," he said. "But if we are honest with ourselves, we'll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing - missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it."
Then, he got more specific, citing U. S. Census Bureau statistics and other research on Black fathers.
"You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all Black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled - doubled - since we were children. We know the statistics - that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it."
Obama not only pointed to the tragedy of fatherlessness in the Black community, but the tragedy of crime that sociologists say is a result of it.
"How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child?" he quizzed. "How many times have our hearts stopped in the middle of the night with the sound of a gunshot or a siren? How many teenagers have we seen hanging around on street corners when they should be sitting in a classroom? How many are sitting in prison when they should be working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction? How many?"
He alluded to the fact that the police, the criminal justice system and lawmakers are often blamed for lawlessness. But he point right back at the community.
"Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn't have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more after school programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities. But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child - it's the courage to raise one."
He pointed to himself as an example.
"I know what it means to have an absent father, although my circumstances weren't as tough as they are for many young people today. Even though my father left us when I was two years old, and I only knew him from the letters he wrote and the stories that my family told, I was luckier than most. I grew up in Hawaii, and had two wonderful grandparents from Kansas who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me - who worked with her to teach us about love and respect and the obligations we have to one another. I screwed up more often than I should've, but I got plenty of second chances. And even though we didn't have a lot of money, scholarships gave me the opportunity to go to some of the best schools in the country. A lot of kids don't get these chances today. There is no margin for error in their lives. So my own story is different in that way," he said.
The answers, he said, lies first in setting examples of excellence for children; also spending time with them and helping them with homework. Discipline is also a must, he said, replacing video games and the remote control with a book every once in awhile. "That's how we build that foundation."
But, the responsibility goes beyond the home to public policy makers, he says, outlining a list of public policy items that must change in order to help fathers to be responsible. He spoke of:
* Rewards of job training and opportunities for fathers who pay regular child support "and a larger Earned Income Tax Credit that can help them pay the bills."
* Expansion of programs where registered nurses visit pregnant mothers and new mothers to teach them how to care for their children, but also to help increase the father's involvement, women's employment opportunities, and children's preparedness for school.
* Expansion of maternity and paternity leave, and more guaranteed sick leave payments to protect parents of sick children from losing their income.
But, nothing replaces the voice of sound advice, love, and guidance from an adult male in the home, he said: "It's up to us - as fathers and parents - to instill this ethic of excellence in our children. It's up to us to say to our daughters, don't ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for those goals. It's up to us to tell our sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we live glory to achievement, self respect, and hard work. It's up to us to set these high expectations. And that means meeting those expectations ourselves. That means setting examples of excellence in our own lives."
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