We all need to get out of our safety zones too. In addition to voting, we need to embarrass people who don't do the right thing. It's going to take citizen action.

The outside world told black kids when I was growing up that we weren't worth anything. But our parents said it wasn't so, and our churches and our schoolteachers said it wasn't so. They believed in us, and we, therefore, believed in ourselves.

In my generation, we learned how to be leaders by being exposed to and involved with adults who empowered us and gave us a sense that we could choose things. We've let down the generations coming behind us and we are trying to re- establish that connection.

If parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.

There are levels of outrage, and there's a point at which you can't be trespassed upon anymore.

No person has the right to rain on your dreams.

In politics, there are no friends.