Columns

A simple night of fun turns into the worst nightmare for a mother. While documenting a short film, “Vision of Home,” Dekeem O. Reed’s mother, Alice Blackmon Tillman, showed the filming crew a picture she bought her son years before he was murdered.

The picture, which is still hanging in Dekeem’s room today, shows a young African-American boy kneeling beside his bed praying. Behind the boy is a beautiful African-American woman, who appears as an angel.

I would like to start by saying that I am disappointed that the conversation in South Carolina – largely driven by those outside our state – has been focused on a flag, rather than the victims of a heinous crime and their courageous and forgiving families.

While I always welcome debate on a divisive issue, I prefer that debate not come on the heels of a tragedy before the victims have even been laid to rest.

On the night of June 17, an attempt was made to break the spirit of all South Carolinians. The deranged mind of a horrendous individual entered Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and took the lives of nine admirable individuals.

This historic house of God became the scene of a brutal massacre beyond understanding. We all contemplate, why did this happen? Perhaps this is a question that cannot be answered. What kind of a world are we leaving behind for our children, when you can’t go into God’s house without the threat of being gunned down?

Sadly, too many Americans are growing up without the presence of a father. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million children live in homes without their biological fathers.

The positive impacts of having dad around are numerous, such as better social/emotional and academic functioning and fewer behavioral problems.

Children in absent-father homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in two-parent families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in single-mother families.