One of the biggest surprises – and announcements – from Mayor Tom Henry’s State of the City address had little to do with city government at all.Sen. Barack Obama energized a crowd of nearly 2,800 people at Wayne High School on Friday morning and brought them to their feet at several points as he discussed his vision for education, gun control and the economy.
Obama was in Fort Wayne to hold a town hall meeting and rally at Wayne High School. He spoke for 14 minutes, mainly about the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then took questions for about 40 minutes from the crowd.
The Illinois senator said King recognized “that no matter what the color of our skin, no matter what faith we practice, no matter how much money we have – no matter whether we are sanitation workers or United States senators – we all have a stake in one another, we are our brother’s keeper, we are our sister’s keeper, and either we go up together, or we go down together.”
The first question during the question and answer session came from a black man who referred to the violence in Fort Wayne this week, where six shootings occurred within 30 hours of each other.
The man asked Obama what he would do about gun control, and the candidate responded that while he’s in favor of the 2nd Amendment, which grants citizens the right to own guns, he’s also in favor of using common sense to restrict who can have guns, such as the mentally ill, children and criminals.
“It is also important to allow our young people to have a different way of life,” said Obama, who believes providing early childhood education will mark the beginning of steering youth in the right direction.
One of the biggest cheers from the event came after Obama discussed how education can play a role in children’s lives but said it’s not only the responsibility of school districts and teachers to keep students on the straight and narrow.
“It also requires parents to parent,” Obama said. “If your child misbehaves in school, don’t curse at the teacher.”
ksoderlund@jg.net
The Associated Press and Benjamin Lanka of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.
Verbatim text of Fort Wayne speech
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