Let's all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.

The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.

I never intended to be a run-of-the-mill person.

Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.

We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.

We must have an economy that does not force the migrant worker's child to miss school in order to earn...just so the family can eat. That is the moral bankruptcy that trickle-down economics is all about.

The arts, instead of quaking along the periphery of our policy concerns, must push boldly into the core of policy. The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature and help to shape our identity. The arts are not a frill and should not be treated as such. They have the potential to become the driving force for healing division and divisiveness.