Obama spoke for around 25 minutes and addressed the problem of violence in America.,”

Due to the shootings at Virginia Tech Monday morning, Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign rally at the Milwaukee Theatre, 500 W. Kilbourn, last night was toned down to a quiet talk.

Obama spoke for around 25 minutes and addressed the problem of violence in America.

"It makes all of our hearts ache, especially those of us that are parents," Obama said of the shootings. "It makes us think about violence in this society."

In his introduction of Obama, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett told the crowd of nearly 4,000 that officials had questioned whether to go forward with the event.

"In some ways, we're more blessed because instead of a political speech we have more of a conversation," Barrett said.

Obama quoted the 1968 speech by Robert F. Kennedy given the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. The passage Obama read addressed how American society seems to calmly accept violence.

"Bobby Kennedy is right. We tolerate it," Obama said. "It has to stop."

Obama noted the spike in violent crime in Milwaukee, but also talked about other social problems that he called violent.

"The violence of men and women who work all their lives just to have the rug pulled out from under them," Obama said. He also called radio personality Don Imus' recent racial slur "verbal violence."

Obama said the reason America is still caught in the indifference Kennedy spoke of 40 years ago was that people still don't relate to each other.

"We have an incapacity to recognize ourselves in each other," Obama said. "I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper."

Emily Kitchin, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she thought Obama's speech reflected the kind of person he is.

"He toned it down to talk about more pressing issues," Kitchin said.

Obama said the country is still trapped in the belief that we can impose our will abroad when we should be achieving our aims through diplomacy.

The crowd stayed quiet through most of Obama's speech, but cheered loudly when he called the war in Iraq a "war that never should have been authorized."

Kate Merrill, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, attended the speech and sat in the 15th row of the auditorium.

"To be honest, I was a little disappointed at first because I wanted to hear more politics," Merrill said. But her disappointment was forgotten after Obama's speech when Merrill got to shake the senator's hand.

Obama said American citizens haven't been engaged in the political process.

"We know what the challenges are. We know what the solutions are," he said.

He continued by saying that American politics is broken and that the country has given up hope.

"How can we regain the sense that we have control over our country?" Obama asked.

Obama quoted King, saying, "The arch of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

"This campaign can't be about me," Obama said. Rather, he called his much-anticipated campaign a vehicle for regular citizens to change the course of the country's future.

Obama told the crowd that at every turn in American histor -the end of slavery, women gaining the right to vote, the civil rights movement, the beginning of union organization, the end of the war in Vietnam – regular citizens forced change.

"It's not that often we get the chance to put our shoulders against the wheel of history and move it just a little bit in a better direction," Obama said.

Another Marquette student, College of Arts & Sciences freshman Melissa Vermillion, said she didn't mind the quieter nature of Obama's speech.

"I'm really excited to vote for him because he's a people person," Vermillion said. "I can only hope he wins."

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