But God can only smile because only God can know what is coming next.

What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?

Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962, he was an angry, relatively young man. He founded the ANC's military wing. When he was released, he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge.

God's love is too great to be confined to any one side of a conflict or to any one religion.

Everybody sung in my family.

Because I first made my name as a rapper claiming South Central L.A., people often assume I'm strictly a West Coast cat. But my family was actually from back East. I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Summit, an upscale town in north Jersey.

I trust that the president will try, just give it one more shot, some revolutionary way of not doing this, of bringing all those kids back home safely.

I do come from a strong family.