Justice

Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.

When I asked if I had a future as a partner, I was told no. And when I asked why, they looked at me with a smile and said: because you're a woman.

It is not only the bomb or the bully that should keep us up at night — it is also the garden untilled and the newcomer unwelcomed, the neighbor unhoused and the prisoner unheard.

Healing our country is going to take what I call radical empathy. This is a moment to reach across divides of race, class, and politics, to try to see the world through the eyes of people very different from ourselves.

No just cause is futile, even if it's lost. What matters is to keep going, no matter what. Keep going.

Imagine the possibilities when women are not held back. Your generation is unraveling deeply entrenched laws, principles and misguided values that have held women back for far too long and therefore, have held us all back — the human race.

Put yourself in the shoes of the less fortunate and have empathy.

It has always been doubt, not certainty, the constant questioning and testing of cherished assumptions, that has moved us closer to a humane and just world.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters — two beautiful, black young women — head off to school, waving goodbye to their father, the President of the United States.

They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree.

The world is more interconnected than ever before, and it's becoming more connected every day. Building walls won't change that.

You have to be willing to fight for what you believe in. Washington is full of people who say no, and who are saying it in nastier and nastier ways. But knowing who you are will help you when it's time to fight.