The message to both parties should be right now that we need to find ways to work together to speak to the American public.

I still remember how upset I was in the aftermath of President Obama's election, where people in Republican leadership didn't say that, "Hey, I want to focus on the issues and values of our country," but, "My number one goal is to see that Barack Obama is not a two term president." That to me is outrageous. I would never do that. My number one goal is to fight to protect poor people, ethnic and religious minorities, working class folks.

Dream big & have huge ambition, but never forget life is lived in small moments and sustained by simple acts of love.

There is a tremendous amount of corporate villainy going on in the US, where corporations are doing things that they know are causing harm, and they wouldn't do this where their children live or where their children are growing up. Communities often don't have the tools necessary to fight back against grievous harms being caused them. So to give a cause of action for folks who can demonstrate the harm that's being caused, it's critically important that you allow people to have more tools with which to defend themselves and defend their communities.

We started America with the sin of slavery that led right into the post-reconstruction period which was the greatest period of domestic terrorism in our country's history. Then after that, we had Jim Crow emerge and just when the Jim Crow laws were ending came the onslaught of the drug war. Well, the drug war has so perniciously effected, insidiously infected communities of color that in some ways it has come full circle, and we now have more African Americans under criminal supervision than all of the slaves in 1865. This is a profoundly unjust war.

Any Democrat running is trying to get that Barack Obama coalition, which is an increasingly diverse voter base. It's young folks. It's minorities, as well as white women. I don't think we as a party can afford to alienate or not try to speak to the concerns, fears, insecurities, aspirations of white men. We should not give up that ground.

Don't speak to me about your religion; first show it to me in how you treat other people. Don't tell me how much you love your God; show me in how much you love all God's children. Don't preach to me your passion for your faith; teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as I am in how you choose to live and give.