If We Hope To Give Our Children

Over The Last Few Years A Lot Of People Have Become Aware Of The Inequities In The Criminal Justice System, Right Now, With Our Overall Crime Rate And Incarceration Rate Both Falling, We're At A Moment When Some Good People In Both Parties, Republicans And Democrats And Folks All Across The Country, Are Coming Up With Ideas To Make The System Work Smarter And Better.

We Have To Create That Bridge For The Future. And That Means Making Sure We're Paying Attention To The Wages Of Workers In Countries, Making Sure That We're Investing In Their Education And Their Skills.

One Of The Things That You Learn, Having Been In This [president's] Office For Four Years, Is The Old Adage Of Abraham Lincoln's. That With Public Opinion There's Nothing You Can't Do And Without Public Opinion There's Very Little You Can Get Done.

What I Believe Is That Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman, But What I Also Believe Is That We Have An Obligation To Make Sure That Gays And Lesbians Have The Rights Of Citizenship That Afford Them Visitations To Hospitals, That Allow Them To Be, To Transfer Property Between Partners, To Make Certain That They're Not Discriminated On The Job.

We Do Have To Balance This Issue Of Privacy And Security. Those Who Pretend That There's No Balance That Has To Be Struck And Think We Can Take A 100-percent Absolutist Approach To Protecting Privacy Don't Recognize That Governments Are Going To Be Under An Enormous Burden To Prevent The Kinds Of Terrorist Acts That Not Only Harm Individuals, But Also Can Distort Our Society And Our Politics In Very Dangerous Ways.