Statehood for the District of Columbia is the most important civil rights and social justice issue in America today.

I think reconciliation is Obama's goal - but the fight with the Republicans is like a fight with pit bulls, they never let go. Even worse, now the Republicans feel they can keep pushing and he will keep giving. They have not seen a stiff resistance on his part.

The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt.

Our premise is that inclusion leads to growth. So for those who are locked out, they lose development, and those who are in power lose market and growth.

Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.

My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.

Everywhere I go, kids walk around not with books under their arms, but with radios up against their heads. Children can't read or write, but they can memorize whole albums.