Post & Mail photo/Chris Meyers
    Democratic presidential nominee hopefull Barack Obama speaks to a crowd Friday at Wayne High School.

By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer

    It was more than 45 minutes before the man they wanted to see would take the stage, but the crowd was already on its feet shouting and chanting for its man — Barack Obama.
    The Illinois senator and Democratic presidential hopeful spoke to and took questions Friday from a packed gymnasium at Wayne High School.
    The theme of his speech and answers to his questions were that of his campaign — change.
    Speaking to a city that saw five homicides in the week prior to his arrival, Obama  touch on violence in the United States in response to a question from a Fort Wayne man.
    “We have a tradition of lawful gun ownership … we also have a reality that in our urban communities in particular that gun violence is out of hand,” he said.
    Obama said he believes in allowing law abiding citizens to own firearms, but that more precautions need to be in place to keep them out of the hands of children, mentally ill people and criminals. He also said getting cheap and illegally purchased guns off the street should be a priority.
    Balancing the regulations with the freedom to own a gun could offer children a chance at a better future, Obama said.
    But it was more than just getting guns out of the hands of criminals that will help the youth, according to the Illinois senator.
    Improving early education and after school programs in addition to summer school are some changes Obama would like to see to help “keep kids off the streets.”
    “It also means making sure no money gets left behind for No Child Left Behind,” he said.
    Included in his education plan is the offering of a $4,000 college tuition credit to students involved in community service projects in their communities.
    But he think all the burden rests with government establishments.
    “It also requires parents to parent,” he said, which received one of the largest responses from the crowd of the day.   
    “One of the forgotten aspects of Dr. King’s legacy is how he demanded personal responsibility in addition to societal responsibility,”         Obama said. Before taking questions from the audience he talked about Martin Luther King Jr.’s work at trying to bring people together and the importance of remembering those commitments and ideals of the man who was gunned down 40 years ago to the day of Obama’s visit to Fort Wayne.
    In keeping with that mind set, he said he can only do so much as an elected official and that citizens also have a responsibility to bring about the changes they want to see.
    He used the rising cost of fuel and the outrages over it as an example.
    “If you’re going around driving a car that gets 8 mph and then you’re complaining about gas prices, we’ve got a problem,” Obama said.
    Regarding the environment and the changes that need to be made, Obama answered a young man’s question about what future generations will have to handle because of the current lack of action by world leaders.
    Included in Obama’s plan would be the implementation of caps on the amount of pollution businesses are allowed to release.
    Those businesses who go above the limit would be fined and those who are under the limits could sell their remaining allowances to other businesses.
    Touching briefly on the war in Iraq, he said the money being spend on the war could be better used providing health care and better education in addition to many other local initiatives.
    “We are well underway to exceeding $1 trillion,” spent on the Iraq War Obama said.
    This is one of the first times in recent history that presidential candidates have campaigned in Indiana before the primary election, with the nominees having usually been selected by primaries earlier in the year.
    That is not the case, though, for the 2008 primary season, with Fort Wayne having been visited earlier in the year by Democratic hopeful and New York Senator Hillary Clinton at a gathering at Sara’s Family Restaurant on Coventry Lane in Fort Wayne that saw a brief speech to a large crowd outside and then a smaller gathering inside the restaurant.
    Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton also made a stop earlier in the year to campaign for Hillary Clinton and gain local support.
    The New York senator said she would return to The Fort before the primary election.