Thread: Some Things You Can’t Put a Price Tag On, and Fatherhood Ain’t One of ‘Em

Some Things You Can’t Put a Price Tag On, and Fatherhood Ain’t One of ‘Em
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...od-initiative-

Obama announces fatherhood initiative
By Jordan Fabian - 06/21/10 10:43 AM ET

President Barack Obama announced a new fatherhood and families fund at an event in Washington, D.C., on Monday to celebrate Fathers Day.

The fund is part of a nationwide fatherhood initiative that the president said is designed to raise awareness about the importance of fatherhood and help absent fathers re-engage with their families.

Obama — whose father left his family when he was two years old — said that having an absent father can lead children to drop out of school, abuse drugs and alcohol and live in poverty.

"There are too many fathers missing from too many homes, missing from too many lives," he said. "There is harm done to those kids."

Obama said that it is impossible to "legislate fatherhood" but that the fund will bolster local initiatives that are helping keep families together.

"Our children don't need us to be superheroes, they don't need us to be perfect, they need us to be present," he said. "I think it's time for a new conversation about fatherhood in this country."

In a later release, the White House said that the fund, titled the Fatherhood, Marriage and Innovation Fund will "scale up effective fatherhood and family-strengthening programs across the country."

Obama has also provided Department of Labor funding for transitional jobs programs for "noncustodial parents facing barriers to employment."

The fund is part of an ongoing White House effort to bolster fatherhood, part of which is run by its faith-based initiatives office.

In his speech, the president recognized his childhood growing up without a father and said he has worked hard to be a good father for his two daughters, Sasha and Malia.

Even though he received a good upbringing from his mother and grandparents, he said, "I still felt the weight of that absence ... it's something that leaves a hole in that child's life that no government can fill."

"Nothing in life compares" to being Sasha and Malia's father, he said. "You don't need a fancy degree for that. You don't need a lot of money for that."

comments

So who or what gets the "Fund" money? Because Mr. Fabian, doesn't bother to report it in this article. We await your followup. Thank you.

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WHAT——A FUND?to give money for bad behavior.—— How about a fund to send these low life's to jail !!!!Any fool can make a baby,but it seem's like a tradition with some groups of people to not take responsibility for thier actions.A FUND?is this part of the redistribution of wealth?Guess what ADC and such has been a dismal failure.Keep doing the same thing,but expect different results{uh whats that called**YES WE CAN ! FUNDamentaly change America.

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Found a story that said he's requesting a $500 millon budget.??

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The minority illegitimate birth rate is skyrocketing 60 years after the welfare state exploded to the upside. The real lesson here is that the government has created fatherless families by offering benefits. Like anything else, where incentives are offered citizens will take advantage of it.

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Obama says and I quote from article above "it's something that leaves a hole in that child's life that no government can fill." ... and yet he needs another $500 million for the government to do just that. The government giveth and the government taketh away. This is a government welfare problem that started years ago, first with the black family which they destroyed it has worked so well now everyone is included. Family units are the backbone of a civilization. Destroy it and you destroy that civilization.BTW: WE ARE STILL BROKE yet he continues to find ways to spend and waste more money.

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Great, just great. This demonstrates, without question, how clueless obozo really is. First, under LBJ's "The Great Society" minority families are told that Uncle Sam is going to take care of them, cradle to grave. If a woman wants to have 3 or 13 children, Uncle Sam will pay, AS LONG AS THE FATHER ISN'T THERE!! AS LONG AS DADDY BE GONE!!! Daddy moves out, Uncle Sam moves in: this has ruined the minoriety family. Liberal policies never, NEVER work, they only destroy the same people they were designed to help. Now we deal with the horrible results of liberal policies by creating more and more liberal policies to put a Bandaid on the damage the orginal liberal policies have caused.

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News just out. Obama's mortgage program has failed. Foreclosure rates running high. Those waiting for help from Obama have lost their homes.What ever happened to paygo? Another useless bill the democrats never intended to use.Why don't regular citizens of this nation start running for office? Serve your fellow citizens. Get rid of the politicians and take the initiative. Change government by running for office yourselves.

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Whoa, I can't believe that Barry wants these "fathers" punished with a baby. These intense moral situations are complex personal matters that are best handled by focus groups. Never ask when instead you can use the government to take. When someone says that he is not a racist, he's lying.

Found a story that said he's requesting a $500 millon budget...

Too long to C/P all 27936 characters....

HHS Budget Makes Smart Investments, Protects the Health and Safety of America’s Families

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pr...20100201a.html

The Budget also includes $500 million for a new Fatherhood, Marriage, and Families Innovation Fund. The fund will provide competitive grants to States to conduct and rigorously evaluate comprehensive responsible fatherhood programs, including those that incorporate healthy marriage components and demonstrations geared towards improving child outcomes by improving outcomes for custodial parents with serious barriers to self sufficiency as a mechanism for improving outcomes for children in these families.

What!? I don’t trust a sentence that uses the word “outcomes” three times. The more they distribute “outcome,” the more they redistribute “income.”

And of course, with any new wonderful government flush-fund comes the inevitable dot-gov website: Fatherhood.gov — the “National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse.” Are we promoting fatherhood or selling fly swatters & yo-yos? We can also be reasonably certain that the SEIU has graciously stepped forward to accept part of this funding in order to organize a dad’s union.

I’m assuming that Obama changing his pro-abortion stance so more people have a crack at being a dad is not an option.

There’s a good reason politicians should stay out of the father mentoring business — because before long the average dad would be opening credit cards in his daughter’s name, racking up insurmountable debt to teach fiscal responsibility, teaching the kids how to cheat on taxes, blaming Bush for his son’s inability to catch a baseball and resigning from fatherhood in disgrace after getting caught boinking Junior’s babysitter.

Hopefully this fund does have some impact in helping at least one man hear the seven sweetest words a father can hear from his child: Have you plugged the hole yet, daddy?

How the Mainstream Media covers this story ....


Obama’s extension of Father's Day is a helpful reminder of how much dads matter
By Kelly Nuxoll Mon Jun 21, 11:56 am ET

President Obama extended Father’s Day one day this year to hold a conference on the importance of responsible fatherhood and mentoring. Yet the overwhelming message a lot of fathers seem to hear is, “Be quiet.” This is especially true for dads for whom parenthood may have come as a surprise.

Consider websites like Planned Parenthood or the American Pregnancy Association. On the topic of unplanned pregnancy, the pronoun “you” is addressed to only one person: the mom.

As a woman, I never before noticed that men weren’t even grammatically in the picture. But this spring, when my brother announced that he’s unexpectedly going to be a dad, I read the information on unplanned pregnancy with new eyes.

I wanted to understand what he could expect, how other men responded, and where he might find a community or classes for new, unmarried fathers. I never found out. Even the most neutral wording adopted the mother’s perspective. It was like a dad’s point of view didn’t exist. “Society doesn’t give men a lot of help, and it doesn’t give them a lot of permission to be involved,” said Brad Imler, at the American Pregnancy Association. While Dr. Imler lamented this state of affairs, he acknowledged that his organization mainly encouraged fathers to support the mothers.

To be fair, expecting fathers aren’t exactly burning up the phone lines to talk about their thoughts and feelings. The American Pregnancy Association estimates that fewer than 10 percent of its calls come from men. And even these are mostly guys calling on behalf of women, relaying a question about a pregnancy test or symptoms.

Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute for reproductive health, pointed out that men’s reproductive needs just aren’t on the radar. While young women are routinely pulled into the health-care system for gynecological exams or birth control prescriptions, healthy young men have very little reason to discuss reproduction with any professional care provider. And they’re certainly not asking for relationship or caretaking advice. “The concept of counseling and skills building doesn’t exist,” Mr. Sonfield told me. “Learning how to negotiate well with a partner, how to say no, how to effectively communicate what you need and want aren’t things most men think about training themselves in.”

So where do new fathers seeking guidance go?

“Honestly?” replied Imler of the American Pregnancy Association when I asked him. “Men might easily opt to go straight to an attorney.”

Sure enough, the website for Father’s Rights, a well-known grass-roots organization for single fathers seeking to share parenting, includes the words “family court” three times on the front page. They appear – shortly below the words “confused,” “frustrated,” and “angry.”

While the impulse toward litigation is understandable, it’s also sad. Everyone knows a dad is more than someone who executes his legal responsibilities. However, with little preparatory support and plenty of punitive consequences, a father may find his usual position is a defensive crouch.

As a woman, I’m grateful for the laws that protect mothers and children, and I’m exquisitely aware that the reality of pregnancy means that I carry the heavier parental burden, especially at the beginning of a child’s life. But I can’t help but wonder if all the legal and social apparatuses designed to help moms unintentionally hurt them. Most mothers and children are better off if fathers are equal partners and invested parents. But little in our public communication and services invites men to see themselves that way.

To break out of this chicken-and-egg problem (so to speak) men and society need to work simultaneously.

We can all take a page from the feminist movement. Fifty years ago, women had to fight for a bigger, more substantive role in the public sphere, just as men will have to insist on a bigger part in the private one. Fathers might consider activating social networks or grass-roots organizations to clamor for better education, more mentors, a robust community of colleagues, and more varied and accurate job descriptions. In response, we as a society can dedicate legislation, budgets, and counseling resources.

And perhaps, in the vein of "take your daughter to work day," lets create a "keep your son at home day" to teach boys what goes into taking care of a family. This would help ensure that the next generation is prepared for responsible, engaged parenthood.

President Obama’s words today in Washington are a helpful reminder of how much dads matter. But all of us need to change our language around fatherhood.

After all, feminists drilled right down to the pronouns. They made sure a person wasn’t a generic “he,” just as a parent isn’t a generic “she.” By insisting on a syntax that honors both moms and dads, we can make sure every parent knows he or she is being spoken to, and he or she is being heard.

Kelly Nuxoll is a freelance writer living in Washington.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100621...NsawNwcmludA--

If dad's are great why not encourage families? More tax greaks for families and stop paying mommas to raise children alone?

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Truth101 is right on about how the system treats fathers.

I raised my daughter but when my ex told the state i had abandond her and my daughter (which was untrue since my daughter was living with me) they did not even contact me before garnishing my wages. When i contacted the state they said it was up to me to prove otherwise since she had contacted them first.

Even though i had plenty of evidence to the contrary including the fact that my daughter and i as well as the school that she attended all had restrainig orders against her i still had to retain a lawyer at great cost to me and it still took the state months to return the 480.00 a month they had been garnishing from my pay.

And to top it off when the divorce was final the ex was only ordered to pay 25.00 a month!! I never saw a dime from her and support enforcement said it was too small amount to persue her or punish her for!!

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Let's not forget all the fathers who willingly leave their children, whether married to the mothers or not married, and then refuse to pay child support. How about this, 60% of African American homes are fatherless. Funny how Obama missed this in his speech. Get real about what is going on in this country. Black fathers should take responsablity for their actions and not blame white America for everything that is wrong in their lives. For those of you that think this is racism, do your homework, 60% is most likely a low number.

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THIS GUY IS,,, HE ALWAYS TALKS ABOUT HIS DAD ,,, HE DIDNT EVEN KNOW THE GUY,,, HE LEFT THEM BEHIND WHEN BARRY WAS A TODDLER ,,, BUT NEVER A WORD CAN BE FOUND ABOUT HIS MOM ,,, NOW WHOS THE RACIST ?

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The Abortion Debate Needs to Include the Forgotten Fathers

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/...fathers?s=yaho