Fussbucket

by Stacey
Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama used the occasion of Father’s Day last weekend to talk about the role of fathers in the lives of many black children. This article in the NY Times said that in a speech at a 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God on the South Side near Lake Michigan, Obama delivered a “sharp message” about absent dads in the African American community.

Mr. Obama noted that “more than half of all black children live in single-parent households,” a number that he said had doubled since his own childhood. “Too many fathers are M.I.A., too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes,” Mr. 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.”

This is strong stuff. I admire him for coming out so boldly on an issue that has been tricky for black leaders in the past. Comedian Bill Cosby made similar remarks in the past, the article notes, stirring debate among Black Americans.

The Rev. Al Sharpton called Obama’s remarks on absent black fathers “courageous and important,” the article says, but cautioned that Mr. Obama’s words would not be embraced by all segments of the black community. “There are a lot of those who will say that he should not be airing dirty laundry, those that will say he’s beating up on the victims,” Mr. Sharpton said in a telephone interview with the Times. “This will not be something that will be unanimously applauded, but I think that not discussing it is not going to make it go away.”

The address was not Mr. Obama’s first foray into the issue. On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama has frequently returned to the topic of parenting and personal responsibility, particularly for low-income black families. Speaking in Texas in February, Mr. Obama told the mostly black audience to take responsibility for the education and nutrition of their children, and lectured them for feeding their children “cold Popeyes” for breakfast. “I know how hard it is to get kids to eat properly,” Mr. Obama said at the time.

Last week, Obama’s campaign said he would co-sponsor a bill, with Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, to address the “national epidemic of absentee fathers.” If passed, the legislation would increase enforcement of child support payments and strengthen services for domestic violence prevention.

“We need families to raise our children,” he said at the service on Sunday. “We need fathers to recognize 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.”

Obama spoke of his personal history being raised by a single mother. “I know the toll it took on me, not having a father in the house,” he said. “The hole in your heart when you don’t have a male figure in the home who can guide you and lead you. So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle — that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my children.”

I think it takes a lot of courage not only to say it like it is to the people he opposes, but also to his very closest supporters. What do you think? Did Obama take too big a risk coming out so strongly on this issue or is this the kind of leadership our country needs right now?