It was better walk with dignity than ride in shame. A lot of people in Cincinnati are saying, "Rather than have the continual problems of police brutality and economic disparity, I'm willing to make some sacrifices." And I think that they ought to be respected for doing that.
As I often say, we have come a long way from the days of slavery, but in 2014, discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable.
I feel that it is our moral obligation to stand and to be courageous with these families, and particularly Cindy, that have become the conscience of this nation.
You can't get a solution if you won't talk to the people that have the problem. You can't ever have healing if the patient is left out of the operation room.
I`m very cautious and very concerned about what I have initially seen, but I also believe we`ve got to organize like we have never organized before.We talk about it, but realistically, we`ve got to organize at the grassroots level.
If I use the media, even with tricks, to publicize a black youth being shot in the back in Teaneck, New Jersey... then I should be praised for it, and it's more of a comment on them than me that it would take tricks to make them cover the loss of life.
John Lewis we all know was beaten terribly, almost to an inch of his life, opened doors that will never be closed, although there are forces that are attempting to close those doors.
I just released an op-ed in the "Washington Post" that talks about providing an I.D. so that everyone can have an I.D., primarily, the social security card, a picture would be put on that card, and a president can certainly by executive order make this happen so that people will not need a special I.D. They`ll have one to vote.
But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.
They tried to say that being gay is a sin, and I said that adultery is a sin. Adultery is responsible for breaking up more marriages, but do we put that in the Constitution? It’s absurd.