Guilty As Hell. Free As A Bird.

It Wasn't [barack] Obama Per Se; It Was The Feeling On The Ground; It Was Seeing An Old Black Woman In A Wheelchair Being Wheeled By Her Son Waving A Big American Flag, And Then Seeing A Guy With His Baby In His Arms Saying, "i Didn't Want Her To Miss Tonight! I Wanted To Be Able To Tell Her!" And To See All These People, A Hispanic Cop Dancing With An Old White Woman, Wow! I Mean, That's The World I Want To Live In, And Because It's The World I Want To Live In, I Had A Hard Time Leaving.

I Get Up Every Morning And Think, Today I'm Going To Make A Difference. Today I'm Going To End Capitalism. Today I'm Going To Make A Revolution. I Go To Bed Every Night Disappointed But I'm Back To Work Tomorrow, And That's The Only Way You Can Do It.

After I Had Known [barack Obama] For A While, I Remember Saying To My Partner, "you Know, This Guy Is Really Ambitious, I Think He Wants To Be Mayor Of Chicago." That Was The Limit Of My Imagination.

I Was From My Little Perch In A Prep School I Saw The Civil Rights Movement And It Was Defining The Moral Dimensions Of The Time And I Was Drawn To It And I Read James Baldwin And Read Invisible Man And These Were My Touch Points. But It Was When I Got To Michigan And Saw A Bigger World, A Real World, That I Got Involved.

There's Something So Remarkable In The Intensity Of Taking Care Of Somebody Who Can't Take Care Of Him Or Herself. And Then Watching That Little Person Bloom Into Adolescence.