Father's Day: The sweetest day
Having the unenviable assignment of working Father's Day, I thought I'd try to do something different.
My editors were clear and broad: Find us a human interest story about Father's Day. Just a slice of life piece.
Okay, I thought. I can easily go to any restaraunt around town and ask some dad and his family a couple questions.
Or, I can do something different. You can guess where that is going.
Anyway, I drove to the Waterman Gardens Housing Projects. Most of my readers probably know that the Gardens is a high-crime, low-income place where intact families are as rare as hefty bank accounts.
My thinking: All too often, we hear about absent-fathers and the decline of the family - particularly African American families.
But this can't always be the case. Amidst the dismal statistics and cautionary tales, there are probably plenty of stand-up dads celebrating in the gardens with their kids.
I was right.
Click below for a nice story about Keith Johnson, a 34-year-old Compton transplant who is providing for his family in the gardens. Johnson was not alone. At the party on Crestview Road, where members graciously welcomed an uninvited reporter, there were at least four present fathers who were playing with and caring for their youngsters.
Plenty of kids black, white, Latino, etc. families are without dads on Father's Day. We shouldn't forget that. But some kids are fortunate, and some dads deserve to be commended, especially the ones who counter statistics and/or stereotypes.
By Robert Rogers
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- Father's Day was joyous in the Waterman Gardens housing projects for at least one party of dads, moms and children.
The smells and sounds were sweet.
Ribs and chicken and steak sizzled and smoked on the barbecue. Kids (and adults) chucked water balloons and splashed in a tiny inflatable pool.
The Dominoes table got soaked, but no one fretted.
Keith Johnson was loving it.
As a kid in Compton in the 1980s, this was no holiday. It was a dismal reminder. Salt in an open wound. A harsh spotlight on the fact he had no dad to go to breakfast or play ball with.
Johnson is living better now. Father's Day is his time to shine.
"There is nothing better than being a father," said Johnson, 34, cradling his 1-year-old son, Khalil, in his left arm. "It's my chance to give my kids better than I had." Johnson's daughter, 2-year-old Kaliah, was soaked and smiling.
Johnson didn't meet his father until he was 15. Even now, the relationship hasn't fully healed. He called his dad, now 74, Sunday morning.
"We never really connected," Johnson said. "It's more like a man-to-man relationship than father-son."
Johnson learned from history instead of repeating it.
He held his son close as he spoke. The pain, the sense of devaluation that came with being a fatherless child is still fresh 20 years later, he said.
His kids won't feel that. No way he'll let that happen.
"Fatherhood is my life now, my purpose," Johnson said. "I don't want my kids to feel what I went through."
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