President Barack Obama on Friday afternoon closed out his three-state post-State of the Union tour with a unusually personal speech in his hometown of Chicago, Ill., advocating the need for strong families as well successful and safe communities to help create upward mobility for the nation's most impoverished.
Obama, speaking at Chicago's Hyde Park Academy, called for the promotion of marriage and fatherhood, contrasting the two-parent household with his own upbringing.
"Don't get me wrong," he said, "as the son of a single mom who gave everything she had to raise me with the help of my grandparents, you know, I turned out okay." Obama commended the single mothers in the audience, but added "at the same time, I wish I'd had a father who was around and involved."
Obama's father, a central figure in his memoir "Dreams of My Father," and Obama's mother divorced shortly after Barack Obama's birth.
The president on Friday stressed that strong families, along with education opportunities such as his new proposal to offer universal preschool, build strong communities that help promote upward mobility the president has termed "ladders of opportunity."
"Government alone can?t solve these problems of violence and poverty ... everybody has to be involved," Obama said.
The president spoke about the recent gun violence in Chicago where the murder of high school student Hadiya Pendleton, who had performed at Obama's inauguration about one week prior to her death, caught the attention of the nation as well as the White House.
Hadiya had performed at the president's inauguration last month, and she was shot and killed just one week later. First lady Michelle Obama attended Hadiya's funeral, and Hadiya's parents sat with the first lady during the president's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Obama said Friday that Chicago's gun violence rate is "the equivalent of a Newtown every four months," referencing the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.
But he conceded that in some places in America, there is seeming little opportunity for young men, especially, who feel as if their "future only extends to the next street corner."
Obama suggested that the new initiatives outlined in his State of the Union can help create opportunities for inner-city youth:?raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour; universal preschool; and a plan to revitalize neighborhoods?including 20 to be labeled "Promise Zones"?with the help of federal assistance.
Obama's Chicago visit completes his three-state sweep to promote the agenda he laid out in the State of the Union. The president pressed his manufacturing proposals in Asheville, N.C., on Wednesday and advocated for his universal preschool program Thursday in Decatur, Ga.
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