A podium on a stage. The country’s leader is perched at the podium, looking out to a patient audience. Barack Obama is here to speak about being a responsible father. Father’s everywhere were about to be made either guilty or proud. It is important for fathers to be with their kids, and Obama advocates this message.
After recalling his prior speech given last father’s day, Obama opens up with posing a question to his silent audience: how can we come together to ensure that fathers meet their responsibilities. What are these responsibilities? The president states that fathers are first teachers, mentors, role models to their children. Children follow the example set forth by their fathers. If a father is pushy at times, it is likely that his child is to exhibit similar behavior. After all, “like father like son”.
Barack Obama then brings a more disturbing idea to the table. Not all fathers are present for their children. In abandoning their children, fathers abandon their responsibilities to their children. They can’t be mentors, they can’t be teachers. The example that these cowardly fathers leave for their children is one that their children will be sure not to replicate. Obama would know, as his father abandoned his family. Obama didn’t leave his family in the lurch. It is understood best first-hand that not having a father leaves a hole that can never be patched. He didn’t have that role model; that mentor to look to. The president tells his audience that his father taught him one valuable lesson. Be there for your family. And he is.
In telling his audience about his lack of father, Obama helped affirm to his audience that he knows what he’s talking about. The gap between Obama and the audience abates in size. It’s one thing to study a subject, and observe from an outside perspective. In this case, there’s nothing like experiencing the real thing. Only then can one have the truest sense of knowing what not having a father is like.
The president brings up a good point. It isn’t the government’s job to keep kids from looking for trouble. The government can’t force a student to pick up a book and read. The government can’t make a child do their homework; provide guidance. That is the father’s job. Father’s must step up.
Being that he is such a prominent figure, when Obama states something like this, people are bound to hear it. The more people that hear this, the more that people are going to agree and strive to do so.
Sure, it’s easy to become a father, says Obama (physically, that is). It’s much harder to live up to the responsibilities of being a father. This is especially true when times are tough. But fathers don’t need to be perfect. The most beneficial thing a father can do for his child is to be present. Go to that soccer game; attend the performance that has your son in it. It’s extremely important to children to see their father’s at their events. It is in this respect that sons and daughter feel that their father cares. To reiterate, you don’t have to be a superhero. It’s the little things that matter the most. In saying this, Obama makes being a father easier than some think.
To strengthen his ethos, Obama admits that he’s made mistakes as a father. He’s missed that soccer game, skipped the parent-teacher conference. But he knows that fathers don’t have to be perfect to be perfect fathers. Nothing is more gratifying than being a father.
Obama reaffirms that the president of the United States can’t force fathers to be good to their kids. After all, it isn’t a right, it isn’t a burden; it’s a privilege.
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