Colin Powell: calling all African-American fathers

November 2, 6:50 PMLove and Marriage ExaminerRita Watson

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  AP Photo/ Susan Walsh

When we write about love and marriage, we love looking at the romance side.  Too often these days we have looked at the cheating side.  Perhaps that is the reason we are attracted to celebrity baby bumps -- we tell ourselves, this is love and marriage in action, creating a foundation for family.

But Colin Powell reminded us today that growing up as an African-American often means too few role models and too few intact families.

With the rise in single parenting, many children will grow up in homes in which the concept of love and marriage simply does not exist.

In a CNN interview today Powell was quoted as saying: "We need more African-American men, for example, to step forward and serve as mentors to young kids who don't have a responsible, caring adult male in their lives. If I could snap my finger and do one thing, I would make sure that every young American boy or girl, but especially African-American [children], have a responsible, caring adult in their lives.

"Hopefully, it's their parents, even if it's a single parent. ... But without that kind of family support, then we need Boys and Girls Clubs. We need Big Brothers and Big Sisters. We need mentors. Otherwise, these kids will find bad adults to copy from, and we're going to lose them. " Black Men in the Age of Obama

Sometime ago I wrote about the need for love, marriage, and intimacy classes taught in the schools.  When we learned recently that one high school had 155 unwed mothers, it seems that the message of commitment and two people caring for each other and their children has fallen by the wayside. At one high school, 115 girls are pregnant // Current

There are often articles that talk about teaching parenting.  But for an entire generation of children living at or below the poverty line, all the classes in the world will not be able to replace what they miss seeing most in their lives --  people in love, people who will shower them with love.

Why is this topic so close to my heart? I spent many years at the Yale working  to create family-centered care and treatment for children having children. Rita Watson

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