Dear Editor:
Outgoing President Obama is concerned with his legacy. Becoming America’s very first black president is history-making.
This past year in Chicago, the president’s adopted hometown, 762 blacks have been murdered, mostly by other blacks or Hispanics … more than Los Angeles and New York City combined. If president Obama had focused attention on reducing the murder rate in Chicago, that would have been a great legacy. “How awesome,” we would have said, “that our first black president really made a difference reducing black murders in his home city.” Instead he paid no attention to it.
I believe, as does Tony Dungy, the first black head coach to win a Super Bowl, that all kids need dads. In October of 2015, Dungy visited a prison expecting his audience to be 40-50 year-olds. Instead he saw mostly 19-21 year-olds. Gabe Brown who ran the prison outreach program said to Dungy, “The common denominator wasn’t racial; it wasn’t socio-economic. It was guys growing up without dads.” Dungy concluded, “That let me know the importance of dads being in the home.”
Most every black in Chicago has grown up with no father. Of course it would not be “politically correct” to emphasize the family in today’s political environment. What a shame.
Dave Johnson
Cambridge