Government can help. We can write laws to give schools and principals more authority to discipline children and protect the peace of classrooms. We must encourage states to reform their juvenile justice laws. But changing our culture requires more than laws. Cultures change one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time.
Government can spend money, but it can t put hope in our hearts or a sense of purpose in our lives.
This is done by churches and synagogues and mosques and charities that warm the cold of life. A quiet river of goodness and kindness that cuts through stone. To perform their commonplace miracles of renewal. As president, I will lift the regulations that hamper them. I will involve them in after-school programs, maternity group homes, drug treatment, prison ministries.