We continue to blame the poor for their own condition. They are lazy. We do not want to know that the poorest of the poor are toddlers under three years of age.

One is responsible for one's own life. Passivity provides no protection.

If we are to create a new agenda for family/work policies, employers and employees have to take a seat at the same table and recognize their mutual gains.

A small pay discrepancy between men's and women's salaries for the same job may seem inconsequential. But over the years, salary discrimination adds up to a significantly smaller pension.

To equate a corporation with a person is a travesty of justice.

When we mention the 1 percent and the 99 percent, everybody now knows what we are talking about. It's part of our vocabulary. How quickly these numbers jumped from the sidelines to the center.

I confess to feeling continued ambivalence about political life, aware of its shortcomings and disappointments, but drawn back to it again and again because of its infinite promise. Justice can triumph, wrongs can be righted, and pain can be alleviated, if the right fix is found. The optimistic illusion that one can change the world is difficult to resist, especially when from time to time that illusion is sustained by even a hint of reality. Change does happen in the political process.