Archive for September, 2013


By Leslie M. Gordon and William K. Middlebrooks, Essence Magazine.

Robin Roberts and Dad

This excerpts from Dare To Be Extraordinary: A Collection of Positive Life Lessons from African American Fathers are taken from the chapter on ABC Broadcaster and Good Morning America host, Robin Roberts.

Robin Roberts brings joy, honesty, and news to millions of loyal Good Morning America viewers each day. When she laughs, we laugh. When she cries, we cry. People are naturally drawn to her just as they were drawn to her loving father, Colonel Lawrence Edward Roberts, a man she describes as a true officer and a gentleman…

In Roberts’ eyes, her father was a gentle giant. He was compassionate and although he had a straight-laced, buttoned up persona, and a deep voice, there was a real softness to him.…

Roberts loved to answer the telephone: “Colonel Roberts’ quarters, Robin speaking.” Her father would just look at her as if to say, “Oh my gosh, what have I raised?” …When the future broadcaster was ten years old, her family lived on Keesler Air Force base in Biloxi, Mississippi where her father was a commander. Her uncle and his family came to visit. Excited, Roberts wanted to run outside to greet them the moment she saw her uncle’s car pull up in the yard. Her dad calmly put his arm around her shoulders and said, “No.” He wanted her to conduct herself like a young lady and expressed that when they got in the house, she could jump up and down and knock her cousins over like a Labrador retriever if she chose to…

Colonel Roberts never had to sit Roberts or any of his children down to talk about going to college or doing something important with their lives. Greatness was just expected…

She remembers a time in college when she had her heart set on buying a motorcycle, and she felt that she needed to tell somebody. So she called her sister, Dorothy … About an hour later her telephone rang … “Dorothy won’t tell us what it is but she said that you’re going to do something you shouldn’t do, so technically she didn’t violate your trust,” her mother said.

Roberts told her mother the truth: “I’m getting a motorcycle tomorrow.”

Immediately her mother put her dad on the phone. Her father firmly said to his youngest child, “Under no circumstances will you buy a motorcycle. No daughter of mine will do that. You know it’s a deathtrap. You have a car to get you from point A to point B. You

know, if that’s gonna be the case you can bring that car home, and you can just ride your bicycle to your classes.” Her father went on and on until Roberts relented. “Fine, I won’t buy a motorcycle!” Robin said and hung up.

Many years later, her dad asked her, “Did I handle that right, Robin? Because I really don’t think I handled that right with you.” Robin replied, “Dad I’m fine! It’s okay. I’ve really let it go.”…

Roberts’s father influenced her career choice because it was an adventure being the daughter of Colonel Lawrence E. Roberts. She wanted to see even more of the world because her dad had already shown it to her and because she had already gotten a taste of it, she knew that as an adult a nine to five job wasn’t for her.…

On Good Morning America in 2003, Roberts had the honor of flying an AT-6, an Air Force training aircraft her dad once trained in. … They found an old clunker and Roberts joked that she wanted to fly a plane like her father did, not the actual 50+ year-old-plane that he flew in World War II. “This thing came chugging down the runway and my father was just beaming,” Robin shares. “Some of my favorite video is of him watching me fly and being with other Tuskegee Airmen.”…

Knowing that her father came from humble beginnings and went on to fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot influenced her to pursue her own dream of becoming a sports journalist. “It was almost like, how dare I not try to do this.…

“My dad saw me become the news anchor, but he passed away before I became an anchor at Good Morning America. He passed away shortly before I became one of the anchors with Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson,” Robin says. “I so wanted him to see this, but the comfort I have is that I know my father was proud of me and that’s the only thing that I, or any child, could ever ask for.”

Source: Essence Magazine

Worthy Cause, Worthy Book

Our mission at ExtraordinaryFathers.com is to “Help fathers make a positive impact on the lives of their children”. Simple but not easy!

Most of us are not handed a “How to be a Good Father” handbook when we have a child born. But rather, we either rely on what we saw or experienced growing up and quite frankly, that could have been a good or bad experience. With ExtraordinaryFathers.com we want to offer all fathers (and mothers too) a place to visit where you can regularly access a set of proven parenting resources that either supplements the “good father” experience you had growing up, or likewise, if your experience wasn’t so positive, provide you with useful tools, information and on-going support that helps you become the extraordinary father you want to be!

How we support this mission will involve numerous approaches and challenges, both large and small, but at the end of the day if we want our sons and daughters to thrive and have a better life we as fathers must dare them to be extraordinary. We dare them to be extraordinary by being engaged in their lives, by instilling in them the values of respect, honesty and integrity, by demonstrating to them an exemplary work ethic, by embracing the importance of faith in all that we do and finally by committing to an uncompromising level of excellence in our daily lives.
Our promise at ExtraordinaryFathers.com is to offer a platform that positively promotes the role and importance of men, particularly African American men, as fathers in our society through the following ways:

Recognize and uplift men who are engaged and loving in their role as fathers.
Educate and reinforce for men the important role and positive impact they can have as fathers.
Inspire men to take a leadership role in raising their sons and daughters to live out extraordinary lives.
Offer compelling testimony that men have the capacity and demonstrated history to raise and influence their sons and daughters to become extraordinarily positive people within their community and beyond.
Begin a new positive conversation about men and their role and influence in raising their sons and daughters.

Hear, my child, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered; and if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
Proverbs 4:10-13

To Read more about this movement go to: http://www.extraordinaryfathers.com/mission/

The Fatherhood Connection met with Chief Sheppard (far left) and Thabiti Boone – White House Representative on a panel to discuss initiatives for fathers across the nation. Our own Reginald Cox, was one of the guest speakers.

The White House Honors Fathers on several levels. Read more about these fathers (and some mothers)  in their respective roles at the White House Champions of Change

Read more about  the  role of Thabiti Boone here.

reg wh- T, Boone- chief sheppard

Men’s Fellowship of Mount Olivet Baptist Church

Invites You to a special forum on Fatherhood in Rochester, NY

Moderator
Thabiti Boone… White House Champion of Change

 

President Obama’s Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative

Guest Panelist: Pastor Reginald Cox

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Fatherhood Initiative Coordinator, Monroe County, NY
Andre Harper
Action for a Better Community (ABC)
Angel Alicea
IBERO American Action League
Chief James Sheppard
Chief of Police, Rochester, NY
Mitchell Harris
Author of “Building a Black House”
Mt Olivet Baptist Church September 7, 2013 at 4 –6 pm
141 Adams St Rochester, NY 14608