President Barack Obama will take time out on Friday from unrest in Iran and a suddenly endangered healthcare overhaul on Capitol Hill to focus on fathering.
Ahead of Father’s Day on Sunday, Obama plans several events at the White House and in suburban Virginia designed to highlight fatherhood and mentoring. Obama also wrote an essay that will appear in Parade magazine on Sunday and will have a Father’s Day interview with CBS News.
Obama, abandoned by his father at age 2, last saw him when he was 10 years old and frequently talked during the campaign about fatherhood and his experience growing up. He will visit a program in suburban Arlington, Virginia, that provides one-year intensive training for urban young adults, then hold an event in the East Room of the White House to discuss fatherhood and mentoring and host young men from local schools at a South Lawn event.
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President Obama’s Father’s Day speech while laudable, is overly simplistic and fails to show any insight regarding fatherlessness. Obama needs to answer why studies have shown that fathers most involved with their children during marriage have a high probability of disengaging after divorce (Kruk). Does he actually think that fathers don’t love or want to be with their children? If Obama is serious about understanding the issues I would strongly recommend he form a national study committee peopled by those who have dedicated their professional lives in studying fatherlessness. He’ll be surprised what they will say.
- Posted by Robert Ferrer