Obama: “What makes you a man is not the ability to make a child, it’s the courage to raise one,”

IGOR BOBIC FEBRUARY 15, 2013, 6:07 PM 5164
President Barack Obama talked about the importance of parenting and life in his adopted hometown of Chicago on Friday, his third and final stop across the country to highlight the “ladders of opportunity” he spoke about in his State of the Union address.

In an unusually personal speech, Obama cited broken families and communities as one source of gun violence in Chicago, a city notorious for its high murder rate. It’s also where 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was killed by stray gunfire last month. She had performed in Obama’s inaugural ceremonies in Washington.

“I wish I had a father who was around and involved,” said Obama before a young audience at Hyde Park Academy High School.

“Loving, supporting parents — and, by the way, that’s all kinds of parents — that includes foster parents, and that includes grandparents, and extended families; it includes gay or straight parents” are the “single most important thing” to strengthening communities, Obama said. “What makes you a man is not the ability to make a child, it’s the courage to raise one,” he added.

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