At the White House Yesterday, intending to start a national conversation on "responsible fatherhood and healthy families," President Obama said, "When fathers are absent, when they abandon their responsibility to their children, we know the damage that does to our families... I say this as someone who grew up without a father in my life... That's something that leaves a hole in a child's heart that governments can't fill."

Leslie and I know the heartache of that hole - it can't be filled by government, but it can be made shallower by people who care. By good after school & summer programs, by committed mentors. Good mentoring is fathering.

But nothing replaces an absent father. We've spent the last eleven years learning this anew every day.

Kelly Hughes suggested I write a Father's Day piece. I wrote an Open Letter to the father's of our bigger boys--Juan, Philippe, Carlos, William, Kindu. No one wanted to publish or broadcast it. But this is the Internet age; Nick Whitaker filmed my Open Letter as a video & he's uploading it now. I'll post it after synagogue today.