The strength of a single mother is about the closest to Jesus Christ’s strength I’ve ever witnessed.Last year during President Obama’s Father’s Day speech he said, “We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception.
“We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child – it’s the courage to raise one.”
This quote spoke to me more than any other Obama quote had ever spoken to me before.
The acknowledgment of the lack of fathers not only in the black culture but also all over the world coming from our president made my heart sink.
Coming from a single parent home I know first hand what it felt like being forced to look in other men for the things that you should receive from your biological father.
Going through life with my situation I’ve learned to find father like qualities in my family members. The support that I’ve received from men in my family has greatly helped me as a young woman greatly.
Now a 20-year-old and a junior in college I think that these father figures have done a very good job.
Though I have had a few father figures in my life, I still and will forever have emptiness in my heart where my father should be.
I never knew how it felt to be loved by a man at a young age, nor do I know how it feels to be able to buy my father a gift on Father’s Day. I never was able to experience how it feels to play catch with my father and unfortunately I don’t know how
However, what I do know is how it feels when your mother cries herself to sleep at night because she doesn’t know how she is going to get through another day.
I do know how it feels when you gather every joke your young mind has retained just to put a smile on your mothers face.
I know how it feels when your mother’s tears become so heavy that even a child knows that a hug just won’t be enough that day.
I know how it feels to get by in life without a father.
Also During Obama’s speech he informed America more than half of all black children live in single-parent households.
Whether the household be without a mother, a father or both, Black America is putting there children at higher risk of being school drop outs, criminals, run aways and unfit parents themselves.
In elementary school they teach you how to make paper cranes and sometimes even how to make a Father’s Day card, but what they left out is how to hold your mother when there is nobody else to hold her.
They don’t teach you the correct way to put your words together to give your mother the faith to see the next day.
My mother as well as half of other Black households have had to hold their heads up high alone. So, because of my background, I really cannot say Happy Father’s Day to my father.
What I can say is thank you for bringing me into a world where I could witness a strong mother such as Stephanie Jackson who is my mother, my everything.
I think I can speak for all fatherless children when I say, Happy Fathers Day Mom!
Alexis M. Jackson is a sophomore mass communication major from Emeryville, Calif.