My family, though never running on all cylinders, has always been there for me. Absent fathers never really made my radar, which tracks things I think this country needs to change before we collapse into anarchy – the environment, affordable housing, longer cell phone battery life, and whatnot.
I do, however, recognize that the problem of fatherlessness exists, especially in the black community, as brought to our attention by Sen. Barack Obama, close friend of T&S, in his Father’s Day speech.
By now you’ve heard the Rev. Jesse Jackson say on a hot mic that Obama be talkin’ down to black folk. I could not disagree more.
Obama highlighting the issue of deadbeat dads to blacks is the opposite of talking down to them. It’s treating them with enough respect to talk to them like adults, addressing the issue head-on, and applying it directly to the forehead.
Obama said yesterday he would not back down from the issue, a position T&S finds most laudable.
Tags: barack obama, election, jesse jackson, politics
