Just because a child's parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.

We're a violent nation, and we need to confront it. This gun plague has to stop.

The literacy level at Mississippi prisons? Fifth grade. Can't read, what are you going to do? If you've got a conviction rap, what are you going to do? It's a real crisis.

Be real. Try to do what you say, say what you mean, and be what you seem.

As [Martin Luther] King said, it never cost anybody a dime to integrate the lunch counters. When you start talking about trying to deal with jobs and hunger and things that require investment, then that's really the tough stuff, because everybody wants to do right if it doesn't cost them anything.

Hope is the best contraceptive.

We must serve consciously as caring role models, emphasizing the ethic of service, not consumption.