Hope, change built on families
An open letter to President Barack Obama: Dear Mr. President,
Congratulations on winning your second term. In full disclosure, I did not vote for you, in 2008 or on Nov. 6. I had some issues this year with your campaign to go “forward” when most Americans are still waiting for the “hope and change” promised four years ago.
However, in the spirit of inclusion your party is known for, please consider a conservative’s opinion on how to effect true hope and change for America. Don’t worry; these are not radical ideas like prayer in school. These involve values you live out in your personal life: the importance of education and the worth of family.
First of all, please be the man you were on May 16, 2011. That day you came to Memphis to give the commencement speech at Booker T. Washington High School. In the span of three hours, you united young, old, black, white, Democrats and Republicans who were all rooting for the young men and women you honored in your speech.
In particular, you said, “Not a single one of you had anything handed to you on a silver platter. You had to work for it. You had to earn it.” This is a far cry from the “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen” lecture of your re-election campaign. Remind us that you actually believe what you told those students, that America is still a place where hard work pays off. For many, the key is education.
However, it seems education alone is not enough. Remember Christopher Dean? He was the graduating senior who introduced you at the commencement ceremony. But now, replacing the humor and wit he used that day is the reality depicted in Alan Spearman’s poignant film “Memphis Poverty: What Obama Didn’t See,” that there’s still not much light in the area where he grew up. He calls it “an area code with no hope.” Keep in mind, Dean did succeed in school, but says, “I’m afraid of the future.”
As the moral fabric of our society has eroded, leading to a breakdown in family structure, schools have been asked to pick up more and more of the slack. But they are failing to do what they cannot be equipped to do, and that is take the place of a mother and father. Never is this more clear than in Memphis, where a mere 6 percent of high school graduates from public schools are prepared for collegelevel work.
You spoke a lot about “leveling the playing field” so all Americans have a real shot at the American dream. But many people have a better start in life simply because they have what is becoming less and less the norm — a solid family structure. Though you came from a broken home, your family now has the very makeup that conservatives uphold as the cornerstone of our society — a married mother and father raising children together.
You never seem so genuine as when Michelle talks about you as a husband she loves and a father who is involved in his girls’ lives. Remind our youth that marriage is a great partnership, not a burden — something to be emulated, not avoided as if there is some more “evolved” family structure. You must do everything in your power to uphold the family as the building block of our nation.
Access to birth control and abortion services seemed to motivate many women to vote for you. But I can’t understand how this is a “win” for women when the real issue of what we’re doing with our bodies, and why, is never addressed. If this seems foolish, I refer you to another locally produced film, “Beyond Babyland,” which addresses the issue of infant mortality in Memphis. Though the young women depicted may not have wanted to become pregnant, once they were, they desperately wanted to keep their babies. This is why the problem of teenage pregnancy cannot be “solved” through more birth control or abortion. These girls don’t seek abortions (to the frustration of their own mothers), because they want a baby to love and love them. And so the cycle continues because we never bother to address the real issue.
People are really hurting because of our moral failings. Mr. Obama, you still have a chance to be known as a great president, but to do that, you need to protect the family for the benefit of all so that education can serve the purpose for which it is intended. Only then can it be an equalizer.
Young people still look to you for hope. Now give them the change they truly need, not what has so far been an empty campaign promise. Emily Ford of Bartlett is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Fine Arts, Languages and Literature at Southwest Tennessee Community College.