Black History Month must be more than just a month of remembrance; it should be a tribute to our history and reminder of the work that lies in the months and years ahead.

Regrettably, it has become clear that torture of detainees in United States custody is not limited to Abu Ghraib or even Iraq. Since Abu Ghraib, there have been increasing reports of torture.

Real lobbying reform must end the practice of corporate lobbyists writing our laws.

As we celebrate Black History Month we should be grateful for the achievements they made and inspired by their legacies to continue their work.

It is never too late to regain our credibility around the world.

We need a tougher enforcement program and, most importantly, we need to fix the badly broken ethics system.

The worst excesses of the Congress of the 1980s pale in comparison with what is going on in Washington today.

Over the past few years special interests have had a larger and larger say over who gets what in America, and the voices of average citizens are being shut out.

The poorest residents of the gulf coast were most affected by the devastating hurricanes, and the poorest Americans have shouldered a disproportionate share of the burden in Iraq.

What's interesting is there are $12 billion of breaks in the energy bill that passed, yet we see that the sixth major oil companies in America last year made $1.1 trillion.

Parts of the Voting Rights Act are due to expire next year if Congress doesn't extend them, including the section that guarantees that voting rights will be protected by the federal government.

There are certain kinds of silence that make you walk on air.

I think you're a fairy tale. I think you're magical, and brave, and exquisite. And I hope you'll let me be in your story.

Words have meaning beyond the obvious. Words have consequences beyond intentions. Civil words align risk and reward of such unknowns.

Change is one of the scariest things in the world and yet it is also one of those variables of human existence that no one can avoid.

For we are all bound in stories, and as the years pile up they turn to stone, layer upon layer, building our lives.

I can move any crowd.

Sometimes you win by losing.

It's the friend you call up at four o'clock in the morning that really matters.

It's over when you decide it's over," Norah says. "When you call it a night. The rest is just a matter of where the sun is in the sky. That has nothing to do with us.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neit'er was Syracuse.