Drudge posted a photograph of skateboarder Tony Hawk skating down the halls of our White House. The headline implies a sort of dismay with the Obama administration on allowing such an adolescent show to take place in the White House. I too, upon first impression cringed at this apparent display of immaturity. It seemed so left-wingesque. Sniveling adult teens, whining administration members, and a historically clueless foreign diplomacy all nicely fit the Tony Hawk culture. Then I followed the link to Hawk's website. His site reminded me of his outspoken faith in Christ.
He spoke in deeply personal terms of "the hole in a child's heart" left by an absent father and of the powerful influence his Kenyan father exerted during the only visit the senior Obama made after he and the president's mother had divorced. Obama noted that during that visit -- when he was 10 -- his father gave him his first basketball and took him to his first jazz concert, stirring lifelong interests.
The debate, however, concerning causes of father absence rages on. Liberals who seek to bolster fatherhood scarcely admit that socialistic programs spiritually empower neglect. Why should a mother seek a man's long term commitment when she can live off welfare? Likewise, a father need not feel responsible because the state can provide. If Obama means business he ought to encourage non-profit organizations such as the church, to both train fathers and provide for the fatherless. Instead, his administration threatens to tinker with philanthropic tax deductions greatly reducing the chance for such redemptive provisions. Nevertheless, I give Obama an A for his spirit, and wish he would invoke that same temperament to prophetically address the ills of forced collectivism.
