BARACK OBAMA has in a fathers day message called on black men to be there for their children and stop giving excuses. "We need fathers to realise that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realise that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. It's the courage to raise one."

"Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important," Obama said. "And we are called to recognise and honor how critical every father is to that foundation." But, "if we are honest with ourselves, we'll admit that too many fathers also are missing, missing from too many lives and too many homes. "They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men," he said. "And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it." Democrat Barack Obama told worshipers at a Chicago church Sunday that government must do more to help families--- but he also exhorted parents, especially fathers, to play their part by raising healthy children.