How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child?”
-Barack Obama
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 twenty 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.
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, working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction?
Yes, we need more cops on the street…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.
We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves… So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support. They need another parent. Their children need another parent. That’s what keeps their foundation strong. It’s what keeps the foundation of our country strong.
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So, you should know I didn’t write any of the above. Every word is from a speech by President Barack Obama in 2008. There are efforts underway in our city that may help curb the raging gun-violence epidemic, but no city government or police force can make up for what is missing when there’s no father in the home to love, guide and hold his kids to high standards. That’s the job.
44 got it right,
Jim
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