Today, public understanding of our past and our system of government is pitifully low.

Conservatives forget that citizenship is more than a thing to withhold from immigrants. Progressives forget it's more than a set of rights.

In the end no segregationist scheme has withstood the force of a simple idea: equality under law.

There have been, in recent years, many Asian American pioneers in the public eye who've defied the condescendingly complimentary 'model minority' stereotype: actors like Lucy Liu, artists like Maya Lin, moguls like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. They are known, often admired.

There will always be a place for us somewhere, somehow, as long as we see to it that working people fight for everything they have, everything they hope to get, for dignity, equality, democracy, to oppose war and to bring to the world a better life.

We are a country based on democracy, tolerance, and openness to the world.

Washington is paralyzed by extreme political rhetoric that creates powerful sound bites but poor policy.

I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.