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I felt early on I wasn't going to be a respectable citizen.

I had become increasingly concerned in recent years about the lack of civics education in our nation's schools. In recent years, the schools have stopped teaching it. And it's unfortunate.

I wanted to be what my high-school civics and history teacher thought of as a good American. That automatically involved taking an interest in government.

There have been two periods in my lifetime when the excitement of government and of public issues drew to Washington many of the bright young people graduating from colleges and law schools. These were essentially the Roosevelt and the Kennedy years.

I did become American citizen in order to vote. I lived in this country for a very long time and I finally reached the point where I thought, I'm often sticking my neck out on various issues as all human beings have a right to do.

I think my parents were immigrants, you know, so I guess I would be first generation. Growing up in California.

I got into politics a little bit by chance, as a person from the first generation of the Solidarity movement.

I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.

I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it.