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We knew the people in Natick and knew the teachers that would be teaching our children. It was important for us to be involved in the Natick community because we think so highly of it.

Growing up, when we would get dragged to these events, I didn't want to be there. Over time, as we got older, I developed a real appreciation of the importance of being involved in the democratic process.

My family wasn't particularly political. Mom and Dad voted, but that was the extent of their involvement. In fact, I ended up going to U.C. Davis because, to them, Berkeley was too radical.

My mom, Clida, taught my four brothers and me about her father's work to organize black voters in rural Louisiana in the 1950s. We carried her dad's legacy of activism with us. The Civil Rights Movement was present in the daily life of my family in Detroit in the 1970s.

I left the Democratic Party basically on issues of national security during the end of the Vietnam War.

We need to make people understand that there is a definite connection between what happens in their everyday lives and the decisions we make in Washington, D.C.

Freedom Summer, the massive voter education project in Mississippi, was 1964. I graduated from high school in 1965. So becoming active was almost a rite of passage.

Students in the '60s were responsible for great changes, politically and socially.

During consideration in the Education and the Workforce Committee this year, Democrats and Republicans worked constructively together to improve the delivery of Head Start services to the target populations.