Here's the full speech, continued after the jump. I've posted full speeches from Obama for past year and a half and plan to continue doing so - for the historical record:
Here at Apostolic, you are
blessed to worship in a house that has been founded on the rock of
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But it is also built on another
rock, another foundation – and that rock is Bishop Arthur Brazier. In
forty-eight years, he has built this congregation from just a few
hundred to more than 20,000 strong – a congregation that, because of
his leadership, has braved the fierce winds and heavy rains of violence
and poverty; joblessness and hopelessness. Because of his work and his
ministry, there are more graduates and fewer gang members in the
neighborhoods surrounding this church. There are more homes and fewer
homeless. There is more community and less chaos because Bishop Brazier
continued the march for justice that he began by Dr. King’s side all
those years ago. He is the reason this house has stood tall for half a
century. And on this Father’s Day, it must make him proud to know that
the man now charged with keeping its foundation strong is his son and
your new pastor, Reverend Byron Brazier.
Of all the
rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family
is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how
critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and
coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success
and the men who constantly push us toward it.
But if we
are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also
are is missing – missing from too many lives and too many homes. They
have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men.
And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.
You
and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know
that more than half of all black children live in single-parent
households, a number that has doubled – doubled – since we were
children. 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 in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of
another child? 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? How many are sitting in prison when they should
be working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation
are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction? How many?
Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need
fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need
more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the
classroom, and more afterschool programs for our children. Yes, we need
more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our
communities.
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; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick
up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make
lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it
takes both parents to do. 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.
I
know what it means to have an absent father, although my circumstances
weren’t as tough as they are for many young people today. Even though
my father left us when I was two years old, and I only knew him from
the letters he wrote and the stories that my family told, I was luckier
than most. I grew up in Hawaii, and had two wonderful grandparents from
Kansas who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my
sister and me – who worked with her to teach us about love and respect
and the obligations we have to one another. I screwed up more often
than I should’ve, but I got plenty of second chances. And even though
we didn’t have a lot of money, scholarships gave me the opportunity to
go to some of the best schools in the country. A lot of kids don’t get
these chances today. There is no margin for error in their lives. So
my own story is different in that way.
Still, I know
the toll that being a single parent took on my mother – how she
struggled at times to the pay bills; to give us the things that other
kids had; to play all the roles that both parents are supposed to play.
And I know the toll it took on me. 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 girls; that if I could give them
anything, I would give them that rock – that foundation – on which to
build their lives. And that would be the greatest gift I could offer.
I
say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father – knowing that I
have made mistakes and will continue to make more; wishing that I could
be home for my girls and my wife more than I am right now. I say this
knowing all of these things because even as we are imperfect, even as
we face difficult circumstances, there are still certain lessons we
must strive to live and learn as fathers – whether we are black or
white; rich or poor; from the South Side or the wealthiest suburb.
The
first is setting an example of excellence for our children – because if
we want to set high expectations for them, we’ve got to set high
expectations for ourselves. It’s great if you have a job; it’s even
better if you have a college degree. It’s a wonderful thing if you are
married and living in a home with your children, but don’t just sit in
the house and watch “SportsCenter” all weekend long. That’s why so many
children are growing up in front of the television. As fathers and
parents, we’ve got to spend more time with them, and help them with
their homework, and replace the video game or the remote control with a
book once in awhile. That’s how we build that foundation.
We
know that education is everything to our children’s future. We know
that they will no longer just compete for good jobs with children from
Indiana, but children from India and China and all over the world. We
know the work and the studying and the level of education that
requires.
You know, sometimes I’ll go to an
eighth-grade graduation and there’s all that pomp and circumstance and
gowns and flowers. And I think to myself, it’s just eighth grade. To
really compete, they need to graduate high school, and then they need
to graduate college, and they probably need a graduate degree too. An
eighth-grade education doesn’t cut it today. Let’s give them a
handshake and tell them to get their butts back in the library!
It’s
up to us – as fathers and parents – to instill this ethic of excellence
in our children. It’s up to us to say to our daughters, don’t ever let
images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream
without limit and reach for those goals. It’s up to us to tell our
sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we
live glory to achievement, self respect, and hard work. It’s up to us
to set these high expectations. And that means meeting those
expectations ourselves. That means setting examples of excellence in
our own lives.
The second thing we need to do as
fathers is pass along the value of empathy to our children. Not
sympathy, but empathy – the ability to stand in somebody else’s shoes;
to look at the world through their eyes. Sometimes it’s so easy to get
caught up in “us,” that we forget about our obligations to one another.
There’s a culture in our society that says remembering these
obligations is somehow soft – that we can’t show weakness, and so
therefore we can’t show kindness.
But our young boys
and girls see that. They see when you are ignoring or mistreating your
wife. They see when you are inconsiderate at home; or when you are
distant; or when you are thinking only of yourself. And so it’s no
surprise when we see that behavior in our schools or on our streets.
That’s why we pass on the values of empathy and kindness to our
children by living them. We need to show our kids that you’re not
strong by putting other people down – you’re strong by lifting them up.
That’s our responsibility as fathers.
And by the
way – it’s a responsibility that also extends to Washington. Because if
fathers are doing their part; if they’re taking our responsibilities
seriously to be there for their children, and set high expectations for
them, and instill in them a sense of excellence and empathy, then our
government should meet them halfway.
We should be
making it easier for fathers who make responsible choices and harder
for those who avoid them. We should get rid of the financial penalties
we impose on married couples right now, and start making sure that
every dime of child support goes directly to helping children instead
of some bureaucrat. We should reward fathers who pay that child support
with job training and job opportunities and a larger Earned Income Tax
Credit that can help them pay the bills. We should expand programs
where registered nurses visit expectant and new mothers and help them
learn how to care for themselves before the baby is born and what to do
after – programs that have helped increase father involvement, women’s
employment, and children’s readiness for school. We should help these
new families care for their children by expanding maternity and
paternity leave, and we should guarantee every worker more paid sick
leave so they can stay home to take care of their child without losing
their income.
We should take all of these steps to
build a strong foundation for our children. But we should also know
that even if we do; even if we meet our obligations as fathers and
parents; even if Washington does its part too, we will still face
difficult challenges in our lives. There will still be days of struggle
and heartache. The rains will still come and the winds will still
blow.
And that is why the final lesson we must learn
as fathers is also the greatest gift we can pass on to our children –
and that is the gift of hope.
I’m not talking about
an idle hope that’s little more than blind optimism or willful
ignorance of the problems we face. I’m talking about hope as that
spirit inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary,
that something better is waiting for us if we’re willing to work for it
and fight for it. If we are willing to believe.
I
was answering questions at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin the other
day and a young man raised his hand, and I figured he’d ask about
college tuition or energy or maybe the war in Iraq. But instead he
looked at me very seriously and he asked, “What does life mean to you?”
Now,
I have to admit that I wasn’t quite prepared for that one. I think I
stammered for a little bit, but then I stopped and gave it some
thought, and I said this:
When I was a young man, I
thought life was all about me – how do I make my way in the world, and
how do I become successful and how do I get the things that I want.
But
now, my life revolves around my two little girls. And what I think
about is what kind of world I’m leaving them. Are they living in a
county where there’s a huge gap between a few who are wealthy and a
whole bunch of people who are struggling every day? Are they living in
a county that is still divided by race? A country where, because
they’re girls, they don’t have as much opportunity as boys do? Are they
living in a country where we are hated around the world because we
don’t cooperate effectively with other nations? Are they living a world
that is in grave danger because of what we’ve done to its climate?
And
what I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re
willing to do your small part to leave our children – all of our
children – a better world. Even if it’s difficult. Even if the work
seems great. Even if we don’t get very far in our lifetime.
That
is our ultimate responsibility as fathers and parents. We try. We hope.
We do what we can to build our house upon the sturdiest rock. And when
the winds come, and the rains fall, and they beat upon that house, we
keep faith that our Father will be there to guide us, and watch over
us, and protect us, and lead His children through the darkest of storms
into light of a better day. That is my prayer for all of us on this
Father’s Day, and that is my hope for this country in the years ahead.
May God Bless you and your children. Thank you.
(Photo: Obama carries his
seven year old daughter Sasha after giving a speech about fatherhood at
Apostolic Church of God June 15, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. By David Banks/Getty Images)
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