Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
Barack Obama chose Father's Day to urge African-American men to be better fathers. He said too many are "missing from too many lives and too many homes.
"They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men."
The numbers are stark, and give him credence: 45 years ago, 70 percent of African-American families were headed by couples; today, the number is in the 40 percentile. In 1960, 22 percent of black births were illegitimate; today, the number is 70 percent.
Such trends have been true for most demographic groups in America, but most acutely for African-Americans: The decline in marriage rates has been twice as big for blacks as for the general population since 1970.
Moreover, Barack and Michelle Obama are terrific ambassadors for the two-parent family, and have the moral authority to issue the kind of broadsides he did on Sunday; a white candidate might not have done the same thing, for fear of being viewed as racist.
But in truth, families of all races must be protected.
As for black families, Mr. Obama told a mostly black congregation in Chicago that "We can't simply write these problems off to past injustices."
The numbers there, too, bear him out: If marriage rates were higher and illegitimacy rates were lower 45 years ago, yet segregation has been abolished and racism increasingly diminished, then something else has contributed to the problems Obama speaks of.
Many believe the welfare state, particularly as enshrined by President Johnson's "Great Society," exacerbated the decline in marriage rates and the increase in illegitimacy and economic hardships we've seen across racial lines.
Regardless of what caused the problems, it's a dubious proposition to suggest that the solution is more government. If government did hurt families, then more government certainly can't help. And even if government couldn't be directly faulted, an increase in government dependence is hardly the prescription for the kind of self-reliance Mr. Obama talked about on Sunday.
Indeed, Obama not only called on men to be better fathers, but he also urged parents to expect more from their children, especially in school.
He's right. And we hope such views will color his philosophies on government, vs. self-reliance, going forward.
