I agree with some of what Barack Obama had to say when he spoke at a church on Chicago's South Side yesterday.
CHICAGO -- Standing before a church congregation that has witnessed inner-city violence firsthand, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Sunday that more must be done to end a social ill that is "sickening the soul of this nation."
Obama told churchgoers at the Vernon Park Church of God on Chicago's South Side that too many young lives are being claimed by violence and more must be done to combat the problem.
"From South Central L.A. to Newark, New Jersey, there's an epidemic of violence that's sickening the soul of this nation," the Illinois senator told the crowd. "The violence is unacceptable and it's got to stop."
The violence is an epidemic that must stop. We're on the same page so far.
..."We need to express our collective anger through collective action," Obama said.
He said the government needs to permanently reinstate an assault weapons ban and close regulatory loopholes that protect unscrupulous gun dealers.
He also said government should support and fund more after-school programs to keep kids off the streets. But some of the burden must also be shouldered by residents who need to do more to raise and protect at-risk children, he added.
Obama starts to lose me here.
He sounds like Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, preaching that problems can be solved with more gun laws and more government-funded programs to keep kids off the streets. The answer is money and the government taking on the role of the parent.
The libs have been pushing those same "solutions" for years. They haven't solved the problems yet.
..."We have an entire generation of young men in our society who have become products of violence, and we are going to have to break the cycle," Obama said. "There are too many young men out there who have gone down the wrong path."
Why did all those young men go down the wrong path?
There weren't enough gun laws?
There weren't enough after-school programs to save them?
The fact is they chose to follow the wrong path. They chose to become victimizers.
He later added, "There's a reason they go out and shoot each other, because they don't love themselves. And the reason they don't love themselves is because we are not loving them enough."
Is this an example of the eloquent Obama?
"And the reason they don't love themselves is because we are not loving them enough."
What's Obama's idea of "loving them enough"?
He seems to be preaching that the government should take on the role of parent.
Not only should taxpayers foot the bill to raise them, now we have to create programs that will provide the love that's missing in their lives.
As a Christian, I try to abide by the commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." We are called to love and care for each other.
But on a societal level, what is Obama's "love" plan?
He's telling us that the violent young men would be different if we loved them more.
In effect, he's shifting the blame for violence by the victimizers and pushing it on to law-abiding members of society.
After all, they wouldn't be shooting each other and committing crimes if WE loved them enough.
We created the thugs and now we have to change them with love.
I don't think love is gun legislation or a government-sponsored after-school program.
Obama has to be more specific. The platitudes may go over well in a speech, but they aren't going to solve anything.
Obama should lay out his "love" plan and then we can talk.
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