While i'm NOT a barack obama supporter for other reasons...i'm glad he's stepping outside of the traditional Sharpton/Jackson mold in addressing issues that affect not only the black community...but all races within this country.

Also, was interesting to hear (on the radio) some of his critics who were black...who were claiming he was just doing this to gain appeal from the white voter...as 90% of african american's are going to vote for him anyway.

Overall...very compelling.

link: http://apnews.myway.com/articl....html

Quote »

CHICAGO (AP) - Barack Obama celebrated Father's Day by calling on black fathers, who he said are "missing from too many lives and too many homes," to become active in raising their children. "They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it," the Democratic presidential candidate said Sunday at a largely black church in his hometown. Reminding the congregation of his firsthand experience growing up without a father, Obama said he was lucky to have loving grandparents who helped his mother. He got support, second chances and scholarships that helped him get an education. Obama's father left when he was 2. "A lot of children don't get those chances. There is no margin for error in their lives," said Obama, an Illinois senator. (AP) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., speaks at the Apostolic Church of God... Full Image "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 girls," added Obama, whose daughters, Sasha and Malia, and his wife, Michelle, watched from the audience. Obama's appearance at the Apostolic Church of God was his first address to a church since he ended his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ, where he had worshipped for 20 years, following inflammatory remarks there by his former longtime pastor and others. Obama frequently emphasized the importance of God in his life and ended the speech by asking the congregation to "Pray for me. Pray for Michelle." Obama often speaks about the importance of parental involvement. In Washington, he sponsored legislation to get more child support money to children by offering a tax credit for fathers who pay support, more efficient collection and penalties for fathers who don't meet their obligations. The issue adds to his family values credentials and lets voters see him delivering a stern message to black voters. (AP) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., speaks at the Apostolic Church of God... Full Image "We can't simply write these problems off to past injustices," Obama said Sunday. "Those injustices are real. There's a reason our families are in disrepair ... but we can't keep using that as an excuse." Obama urged black parents to demand the best from themselves and their children. He compared it to his own presidential campaign and early comments from black voters who said they liked him but didn't think a black man could ever be elected president. He said they were admitting defeat before the competition had even begun. "That was when I wasn't black enough. Now I'm too black," he said in a joking aside. He said parents who proudly tell him their child gets great grades, all B's, should encourage them even more. "All B's? Is that the highest grade?" Obama said. "It's great that you can get a B, but you can get a better grade. It's great that you've got a job, but you can get a better job."

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Sadly, some politicians are better at it than others.

-Lewie

Crap thing is he isn't the first to do it. Others have and either get the "Racist" or "Elitist" (Cosby) label. It's really something that needs to be addressed though.

True that. Obama is definitely not the first it just so happens no ones called him a racist yet.

They've been calling him it, it just hasn't stuck (yet)

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I love how Cosby has been labelled a sell out and a traitor because he has dared to speak his mind and has come out and been critical of the black community.

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-Mark Twain

Ron Paul 08

Yeah, didn't Cosby have a horrible relationship with his kids?

I remember his son getting killed, but not much else.

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by the numbers...the african american population has a way higher rate of children born out of wedlock, single parent households etc...so you're wrong.

while every group experiences these problems, the african american population experiences them way more often.

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Yes, but race shouldn't be a consideration in telling people to get their lives together. What happens if McCain make this SAME speech.....................I bet it wouldn't be taken quite as well.

McCain didn't work as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago...

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Quote, originally posted by chet »

by the numbers...the african american population has a way higher rate of children born out of wedlock, single parent households etc...so you're wrong. while every group experiences these problems, the african american population experiences them way more often.

You tell him he's wrong and then repeat exactly what he just said. Nice.

The point he was trying to make is that every race has these problems and praising someone for singling their own out yet failing to call out your own is hypocritcal and moronic.

Oh but they're worse so that excuses everything.

Your correct, McCain never did. But are there no white folks on the south side of Chicago?

It's frustrating that there is still this divide. Why is it so hard to encourage FATHERS to engage their children.......it doesn't matter if your white, black, hispanic, asian or european......let's not segregate the encouragement.

It depends on the area/neighborhood of course, but the south side has a larger black population along with being lower income when compared with the rest of Chicago. All I was saying in that statement was Obama has real world experiences with this issue which allows him a little more authority to speak on it than someone like McCain (regardless of skin color).

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Well considering Obama is black, I'm not sure what the problem is with him calling out his own community. By the numbers this is a much bigger problem in black communities.

Is this something each and every community should be reminded of? Sure.

Quote, originally posted by njn63 »

It depends on the area/neighborhood of course, but the south side has a larger black population along with being lower income when compared with the rest of Chicago. All I was saying in that statement was Obama has real world experiences with this issue which allows him a little more authority to speak on it than someone like McCain (regardless of skin color).

LOL, yeah, the lack of experience with this issue is the real reason McCain couldn't/shouldn't speak on it.

The way people are in this country, you can't really address anyone outside of your own group, race, religious denomination, et al. Obama couldn't get up there and make comments about "White America" and McCain conversely couldn't make comments about "Black America". It's just the way it is.

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Quote, originally posted by Bishop Don Shizzle »

LOL, yeah, the lack of experience with this issue is the real reason McCain couldn't/shouldn't speak on it. The way people are in this country, you can't really address anyone outside of your own group, race, religious denomination, et al. Obama couldn't get up there and make comments about "White America" and McCain conversely couldn't make comments about "Black America". It's just the way it is.

Agree. As soon as someone with no experience in a situation starts spouting off about what people actually in that situation should do, it immediately turns the recipient against the message. I don't go telling tow truck drivers how to tow cars or engineers how to build bridges because it is something I have no experience in.

I didn't say the problem lies in Obama calling out his own. I said praising someone for calling out another race while yours suffers (to a lesser degree) the same fate is hypocritical.

mark, this is true and stats from 2000 or 2002 showed that a married african american couple only made a few thousand less than a married white couple...like 42k to 44k if i remember the numbers correctly.

however, it goes beyond income levels in the african american community...as less african american's are living in poverty now than they were in the 1960's for example...yet the stats have gone the other direction for all races...which indicates there are other factors.

link: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/program....html

interesting stats...

Quote »

Why the focus on African Americans? The African American Healthy Marriage Initiative (AAHMI) is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Healthy Marriage Initiative. The roundtable concluded that any discussion about the state of marriage among African Americans must be considered within the context of their historical legacy in this country. The AAHMI promoted a culturally competent strategy which fosters healthy marriages, improves child well-being and strengthens families within the African American community. Studies show that while 35% of Americans between age 24 and 34 have never been married, that percentage increases to 54% for African Americans in the same age group. Additionally, married couples head 76% of our American families, while African American married couples head only 47.9% of American families. While the overall rate for single parent households in America has increased for all children, it is especially alarming among African Americans. Between 1960 and 1995, the number of African American children living with two married parents dropped from 75% to 33%. At this moment, 69% of African American births are to single mothers, as compared to 33% nationally.

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Even the parents that do stay together, fight so much, that it also has a huge impact on the kid's as well. I know my parents fought a lot, even today, and I still wish they would get a divorce too, so he kinda of got me on this point.

His mentality was that children who know their parents are single and not living together since birth don't have this kind of emotional baggage. Keep in mind, he was trying to make the broader case for not ever getting married and living the single lifestyle.

I responded to him, but I want to hear what you guys think?

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Quote, originally posted by link »

The Problem with Obama's Father's Day Speech Barack Obama's gave a carefully calculated political speech on Father's Day calling attention to the problem of children growing up without a father. In one important respect, Obama was absolutely right: Far too many children are being raised without the attention, discipline and care of a father in the home. But in another equally important respect, Obama took the easy, fast and safe path in his speech. The problem of children being born into fatherless homes is, perhaps, the defining social problem of our times. The starkest possible contrast with the fatherless children of America decried by Obama, was tacitly drawn by the tragic death of Tim Russert, whose reverence for his father was the lodestar of his wonderful life. Why did Russert, whose home was humble, have such a dramatically different life? Was it because of Big Russ? Yes, of course, in one sense it was precisely because of Big Russ -- a father who was the model of all positive traits and all ennobling characteristics. Those rubbed off on Tim. But there is another difference in the parallel stories between Tim Russert and the child raised without a father. That difference does not involve Big Russ as much as it does Tim Russert's mother. She chose not to have a child out of wedlock. She chose to love Big Russ. She chose to make her marriage to him work, despite the hardships and problems that the family faced. Without her choices and will, the life of Tim Russert would not have been the success that it was. The problem of fatherless families is the problem of mothers as well as absent fathers. Children born out of wedlock, after all, are born because a woman decides that a good father is not that important. The prior irresponsibility is not these young men, but the young woman who decides to have sex with them, intending or assuming that society, rather than a husband, bear the costs of her pregnancy. In fact, it has long been possible for a woman to have children without having sexual relations at all. Does our structure of welfare, food stamps, Medicaid and so forth provide any negative consequences for a woman who wants children as a hostage against society -- and who wants to be artificially inseminated? No: The plague of fatherless families could exist without a single unmarried man having sexual relations with a single unmarried woman. When young women have casual, indiscriminate sexual relations with a number of young men -- in many cases not even knowing these men beyond their first names -- then the catastrophe which follows is at least as much the fault of the mother as of the father. If young women stopped having sex before marriage, then the problem of fatherless children would vanish. It is much easier, however, to pummel young men, than for Obama to lay blame for fatherless children where it also belongs: on the reckless actions of those mothers who count upon taxpayers to step in the place of fathers. As Tim Russert's mother could attest, marriage and raising children in a stable home is no picnic. Staying married to a man like Big Russ, who works two jobs and has does not have much free time for his children or for his wife, requires a moral commitment for a mother and wife. Her example, like the example of the wonderful Big Russ, made the life of Tim Russert profoundly different than the lives of so many children, black and white, born into "homes" which are not homes at all, but more like brothels. What Obama should have talked about was the failure of mothers to understand the importance of fathers. That is the heart of why we have fatherless homes. Once, it was accepted that a child needed both a father and a mother to grow up right. Now, it is politically correct to believe that a father who pays child support and visits his offspring every other week is sufficient. My mother grew up with a father who was sick and who could contribute very little to his family, except for his paternal love -- but that love was incomparably more important than any wages that he could have earned. Money is a sideshow in raising good children, especially here in the richest nation in human history. Big Russ worked his tail off, but it was not the money he brought home that transformed the life of Tim Russert: It was the fact of his love, shown by his sweat. Marry before having children. If you have children, stay married. That is a critical theme of Father's Day. That should have been the heart of Obama's Father's Day speech. He focused on the easy target of absent fathers, instead less chic idea of a traditional nuclear family. Tim Russert could have told him how much fathers matter in the home, beside mothers, together loving and raising children. That is the real message of Father's Day.

while he may have just done it for political reasons...he still said it nonetheless.

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Ah I see. Fair point.

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