For centuries, our country has welcomed people fleeing religious persecution, war and humanitarian crises to create a better future for themselves and their futures. With proper safeguards in place, we should offer refuge to some migrants with legitimate fears of persecution and violence.
I'm proud of who I am. I'm proud of my history. I'm proud of the women and the men who came before us who are black, and I'm proud of the women before me who are black and who have achieved so much, even though we have so much against us, and we don't have those doors opening for us every day.
Civil unrest, civil turmoil is not a challenge to President Trump. It's a resource for him. He needs to create an image of a polarized country in which the people who are against him are somehow alien or anti-system.
We are losing each day an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is.
Obama was elected in a flourish of promise that many in the African-American community believed would help not only to symbolize African-American progress since the Civil War and Civil Rights Acts but that his presidency would result in doors opening in the halls of power as had never been seen before by black America.
America became a special source of attraction to people who were fleeing the aftereffects of the 30 Years War and the religious persecution that began to sweep through Europe in the period between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. And when people got here, very often they succeeded.
The United States was built on the idea that we could create a free country that would serve as a haven for those fleeing persecution.
We will write a new page of history, one that is positive for this country, so future generations can be proud.
Our country is a nation of immigrants, who, for centuries, have come here, fleeing persecution, bringing their dreams, their fears, and their hopes for a better life.
There is also the issue of personal privacy when it comes the executive power. Throughout our nation's history, whether it was habeas corpus during the Civil War, Alien and Sedition Acts in World War I, or Japanese internment camps in World War II, presidents have gone too far.
If people are eating mostly pickles after many generations, where did that come from? It's reflective of history, often a painful history. It's central to a culture, to a history, to a personal story. It's communication at its most fundamental.
But my point is these Civil War songs were gruesome. The hatred that's so bad in this country today, and for the past 10 or 15 years, bad as it is, is nothing compared to the kind of things people would write down and sing back in the Civil War.
I do worry about civil unrest, or complete collapse of society, or having to flee, or Europe falling into a war.
I think there's evil on both sides [of Syria], and I think that's one reason I don't want to be involved in civil war. I see things in personal terms. I just can't see sending one of my sons - or your son or daughter - to fight in a civil war, where on one side we have a dictator, who in all likelihood gassed his people.
History has not looked kindly on us when we've prevented people fleeing violence from seeking refuge in this country.
I have been trying to create a campaign to have our country make an apology for slavery, for the way that blacks were treated before the Civil War and after the Civil War.