Hello! Hello, everybody! Thank you so much. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you very much. Everybody, please have a seat. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thank you. Let me just begin by making a few acknowledgements. First of all, I've got some outstanding fathers here in the first row who aren't seeing their kids enough because I'm working them all the time - three members of my Cabinet: Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner - (applause) - Attorney General Eric Holder - (applause) - and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke are here. (Applause)

In addition, we've got one of my heroes and I'm sure one of yours, somebody whose shoulders I stand on and allowed me to become President of the United States, and that's Congressman from the great state of Georgia, John Lewis, is here. (Applause) A fierce advocate on behalf of the District of Columbia, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is here. (Applause)

I want to acknowledge the Mayor of Washington, D.C., Adrian Fenty in the house. (Applause) The executive director of ARC, Edmund Fleet, is here. (Applause) I want to thank all the panel discussion participants who are involved in today's events, and I want to thank Nurney Mason - a Washington, D.C. icon. Nurney founded Mason's Barbershop in 1961. That's the year I was born. It's still going strong. He is here with his children and his grandchildren. Where is he? There he is right there. (Applause) I could use a little trim. (Laughter)

One year ago this week, we kicked off a national conversation on fatherhood and personal responsibility, and members of our administration fanned out all across the country to hear from fathers and families about the challenges that they face. Secretary Arne Duncan, our Secretary of Education, held a discussion in New Hampshire about the link between fatherhood and educational achievement. Gary Locke talked to fathers in California about balancing the needs of their families with the demands of their jobs. Secretary Shinseki, of Veterans Affairs, held a town hall for military and veteran dads in North Carolina. And Attorney General Holder traveled to Georgia for a forum about fathers in our criminal justice system.

And in each of these places, each of these leaders posed a simple question: How can we as a nation - not just the government, but businesses and community groups and concerned citizens - how can we all come together to help fathers meet their responsibilities to our families and communities?

And we did this because we know the vital role fathers play in the lives of our children. Fathers are our first teachers and coaches - or in my house, assistant teachers and assistant coaches - (laughter) - to mom. But they're our mentors, our role models. They show us by the example they set the kind of people they want us to become.

But we also know that what too many fathers being absent means - too many fathers missing from too many homes, missing from too many lives. We know that when fathers abandon their responsibilities, there's harm done to those kids. We know that children who grow up without a father are more likely to live in poverty. They're more likely to drop out of school. They're more likely to wind up in prison. They're more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. They're more likely to run away from home. They're more likely to become teenage parents themselves.

And I say all this as someone who grew up without a father in my own life. He left my family when I was two years old. And while I was lucky to have a wonderful mother and loving grandparents who poured everything they had into me and my sister, I still felt the weight of that absence. It's something that leaves a hole in a child's life that no government can fill.

So we can talk all we want here in Washington about issues like education and health care and crime; we can build good schools; we can put money into creating good jobs; we can do everything we can to keep our streets safe - but government can't keep our kids from looking for trouble on those streets. Government can't force a kid to pick up a book or make sure that the homework gets done. Government can't be there day in, day out, to provide discipline and guidance and the love that it takes to raise a child. That's our job as fathers, as mothers, as guardians for our children.

The fact is, it's easy to become a father, technically - any guy can do that. It's hard to live up to the lifelong responsibilities that come with fatherhood. And it's a challenge even in good times, when our families are doing well. It's especially difficult when times are tough, families are straining just to keep everything together.

In a time of war, many of our military families are stretched thin, with fathers doing multiple tours of duty far away from their children. In difficult economic times, a lot of fathers are worried about whether they're going to be able to keep their job, or find a job, or whether they'll be able to pay the bills and give their children the kinds of opportunities that if they didn't have them themselves, at least they wished for their children. And there are a lot of men who are out of work and wrestling with the shame and frustration that comes when you feel like you can't be the kind of provider you want to be for the people that you love.

But here's the key message I think all of us want to send today to fathers all across the country: Our children don't need us to be superheroes. They don't need us to be perfect. They do need us to be present. They need us to show up and give it our best shot, no matter what else is going on in our lives. They need us to show them - not just with words, but with deeds - that they, those kids, are always our first priority.

Those family meals, afternoons in the park, bedtime stories; the encouragement we give, the questions we answer, the limits we set, the example we set of persistence in the face of difficulty and hardship - those things add up over time, and they shape a child's character, build their core, teach them to trust in life and to enter into it with confidence and with hope and with determination. And that's something they'll always carry with them: that love that we show not with money, or fame, or spectacular feats, but through small daily acts - the love we show and that we earn by being present in the lives of our children.

Now, unfortunately, the way we talk about fatherhood in this country doesn't always reinforce these truths. When we talk about issues like child care and work-family balance, we call them