President Obama held a Father’s Day BBQ on the South Lawn at the White House on Friday, June 19th. It was a BBQ for Young Men from the D.C. area's high schools. Present at the BBQ were:
….. teenagers, young men, community mentors and everyday dads in hopes of launching what he called a national conversation on responsible fatherhood. Each story was personal. But one of them commanded the most attention: his.
He spoke at length about how his father, Barack Obama Sr., left home early. The future president was just 2 at the time and saw his dad only once more, at age 10, a short visit that still left a lasting imprint.
“I had a heroic mom and wonderful grandparents who helped raise me and my sister, and it’s because of them that I’m able to stand here today,” he told a throng of youngsters. “But despite all their extraordinary love and attention, that doesn’t’ mean that I didn’t’ feel my father’s absence. That’s something that leaves a hole in a child’s heart that a government can’t fill.”
"Just because your own father wasn’t there for you, that’s not an excuse for you to be absent also. It’s all the more reason for you to be present,” Obama said at the White House. He gave the same message earlier at an education center for young, at-risk adults."
“You have an obligation to break the cycle and to learn from those mistakes, to rise up where your own fathers fell short and do better than they did,” Obama said. “That’s what I’ve tried to do with my life.
