| Obama Calls on Fathers to Be Responsible
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday that fathers have to share the responsibility for raising children and caring for families because their role doesn't end at conception. Days before Father's Day, the first-term Illinois senator and father of two daughters delivered his life message as well as an assessment of what government needs to do in remarks at a Baptist church.
"What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child," Obama said.
In his prepared text, Obama said: Men need to "stop acting like boys - who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception"
He recalled his own upbringing as the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas. Obama said he grew up with a father he know only through letters and stories told by his mothers and the relatives who raised him.
Am I Mature Enough To Become A Parent?
Dear Dr. Levister: I'm 14 and pregnant. My mom says I'm not mature enough to be a parent. I say I'm not too young to love my child. L.E. Dear L.E. It's noble to say your child will be loved but love alone won't put food in its mouth nor will it pay for your child's college education. Parenting is hard work that requires more than just love. It's pathetic that our schools don't require classes in what is probably the most important legacy you'll leave behind. Becoming a parent means being an adult 24-7. Becoming physically mature means you'll need to mature emotionally and mentally too. A parent has many responsibilities. When it comes to child rearing, providing food, shelter clothing and medical care are just the beginning of what is expected. A child needs mature guidance.
Sue Hutchison: Smart comedy ought to be serious about abortion
It's not often that I go to see a comedy that makes me laugh so hard I almost blow Diet Coke and popcorn through my nose and yet frustrates me so much that I leave the theater wrung out and let down. That's how I felt after I saw "Knocked Up," a movie that is far smarter and funnier than its central premise. In case you haven't seen the reviews or the raging discussion about it in the blogosphere, "Knocked Up" is the story of an attractive young TV reporter who gets pregnant after a drunken one-night stand with a good-natured slacker whom she meets in a bar -- and she decides to have the baby. The option of having an abortion is barely even mentioned, and she proceeds to drag the slacker into the gynecologist's exam room with her for her first ultrasound. Suddenly, she expects him to be a part of her life and the baby's.
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