For me, Barack Obama's election was a milestone of the most extraordinary kind. On the day he was elected I felt such hope in my heart. I thought we were seeing the beginning of a new era of equal opportunity across race and gender such as America had never known before.

We must all learn a good lesson - how to live together. That is the new challenge of the new world... learning to co-exist and not co-annihilate.

Look at the coded language the Right is using against President Barack Obama. Openly calling him a liar in Congress, saying he is 'not a Christian, he was not born here, he is not one of us.' That makes addressing such issues trickier for the first African-American in the White House.

Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.

My mother was a housewife but she was also an artist. My father was an electrical engineer.

You forge different bonds with friends than with family, tell different secrets.

I think if you're young and you're being compared with a successful family member, it's really hard to maintain any sense of self-worth and credibility.

I think that people with differing points of view find common ground in 'Modern Family' is very flattering, and I'm appreciative of that.