A Father's Day message from Obama
The Charlotte Observer | June 16, 2007
By Mary C. Curtis
Barack Obama, a candidate for president who happens to be black, is asked a lot of things.
Are his policies colorblind? Does he carry different messages to white and black audiences?
In 2007, the questions reveal little about Democratic hopeful Obama, and more about the person doing the asking.
But what makes him answer questions other candidates never have to, can give him an advantage. He is able to speak tough truths to audiences that -- despite cockeyed conventional wisdom -- are more than receptive to the message.
In time for Father's Day, he used his special platform to address what it means to be a father, and a man.
The Illinois senator and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., have introduced legislation designed, they say, to help more men take responsibility for their children. It would provide job training and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. It would increase child support enforcement.
It was clear, in a speech at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Spartanburg on Friday, that Obama puts personal and parental responsibility at the center of any effort to improve the lives of young people.
Obama, the Harvard Law School graduate, is a man who barely knew his father, whose mother struggled to raise her family. He beat the odds.
While he praised single moms doing the best they can, Obama emphasized the importance of strong fathers.
"Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and nine times more likely to drop out of school," he said.
Obama spoke of the need for a safety net, for health and retirement plans, for programs that -- like the GI Bill in the past -- bolstered and built a strong middle class.
But he also said, "There is not a program for every problem we face."
"Parents will need to make sure their kids turn off the TV once in awhile, and put away the video games, and start hitting the books.
"There are a lot of men out there who need to stop acting like boys ... who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child."
It's not a new message, but the audience didn't mind hearing it again.
PeggyJo Carson, a retired educator who now volunteers in youth programs, said parents give children love, but often "not the tools they need to be more responsible."
Fellow teacher James Wilson, 52, challenged young and old to "look at everything in life as an opportunity."
Joshua Stroman has.
He was emotional as Obama ended his speech with the Benedict College senior's amazing story. When Stroman was young, he lost his mom and stepfather to cancer, then drifted until minor drug offenses sent him to jail.
A demanding aunt and abiding faith turned him around.
Obama called him "living proof" of how, when given a second chance, people can overcome hard times.
It's a message that the audience at Mount Moriah hopes Obama can spread from his singular place on the national stage.
