My role is to remind people that everyday people can make a difference. And if we get people out there doing things to make America a better place, we can bring change.

What happens to women happens to the entire nation. People work hard. But when you're working long hours, you don't get to spend time with your kids, you don't get a chance to take a vacation every now and then, you don't get a chance to make a big purchase (which helps the economy). There's something wrong with that. This isn't about wages, this about quality of life.

I stand for all people even if it causes me political heartburn - and I'm going to do that no matter what my future holds.

Workers should have a right to sit across from management to collectively bargain about their work conditions, their wages, and the future direction of the company. To me, that's just a humane thing to do. It is unacceptable in the 21st century to have companies not want to do that with their employees and create a great work environment.

When you have mega-corporations that have record profits, but they don't want to share even a little bit of that with their workers, we are actually putting our communities at peril.

Women should not need a permission slip from government to take care of their own reproductive health.

Child care can almost bankrupt a family, even a two-parent household in which both parents are working. That keeps a parent from being at ease and it really stifles the social and economic growth of a family. Women are hit hard across the board, but particularly in homes where the mother is the head of the household and the only wage-earner. It hurts her, and it hurts her children.