Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 12, 1994 TAG: 9408030017
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NASHVILLE, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
That was one message Monday from a conference on fatherhood, featuring such dads as Vice President Al Gore, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, country singer Garth Brooks and Kent Amos, who has raised 87 adopted children.
Another message: Being a father requires sacrifices.
Gore, who has three daughters and a son, didn't run for president in 1992 because he wanted to spend more time with his family after his son was struck by a car.
Brooks stayed away from the Academy of Country Music Awards May 3, where he was named top entertainer, to attend the birth of his second daughter.
A third message: Children look up to their parents.
``Little boys want to be like their daddies, even if they're in jail,'' said Jackson, who has three daughters and two sons. ``Fathers are essential, not accidental, not coincidental.''
Jackson recounted the story of an unidentified rap singer who lost respect for women after his mother said she wasn't sure which of three men had fathered him.
``Why does Al Gore think he can change the world? Because he saw his daddy do it,'' Jackson said. Both the elder and younger Gores represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate.
For Tipper Gore's husband, being a good husband is a prerequisite for being a good father.
``Successful fatherhood first and foremost involves taking care of your marriage or your relationship,'' Gore said.
But it wasn't just famous fathers who held forth at the third annual ``Family Re-Union III,'' a conference co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota that Gore helped set up when he was a senator from Tennessee.
Kent Amos, head of the Urban Family Institute in Washington, talked about the challenges of raising the 87 children he has adopted with his wife over the past 11 years.
``We have demanded of our children that they read more than they watch television. And we sat and read with them,'' Amos said, adding that 73 of his children went on to college and 49 graduated.
Some final words of advice on fatherhood from Brooks: Be there early and stick around.
Brooks attended the births of both of his girls and briefly quit performing after the first was born in 1992 because he didn't think he could tour and still be a good father. Now, his family travels with him.
``Being there when the child is born knocks down many walls,'' he said.
by CNB