We must use words to uplift and include. We can use our words to fight back against oppression and hate. But we must also channel our words into action.
Stacey Abrams
Our ability to participate in government, to elect our leaders and to improve our lives is contingent upon our ability to access the ballot. We know in our heart of hearts that voting is a sacred right - the fount from which all other rights flow.
Do not allow setbacks to set you back.
My being a black woman is not a deficit. It is a strength. Because I could not be where I am had I not overcome so many other barriers. Which means you know I'm relentless, you know I'm persistent, and you know I'm smart.
When you're focused on your enemy, then you are ignoring your allies.
Progress is possible, but it is fragile - and across our country, the battles for our most basic civil rights rage on.
'First things first' might be a cliche, but it's a useful one that means prioritizing what matters most to you and believing there is no wrong answer. When it comes to figuring this out for yourself, the careful binary of work or life entirely misses the point.
I like to solve problems. I know it is a skill set, but it's also an obligation. I grew up with parents who believe that you don't simply complain: you try to find solutions and fix what's in front of you.
To achieve our goals of educating bold and ambitious children, we must invest in enriching, quality early child care and learning.
We need to recognize that, whether you're looking at Georgia or North Carolina or North Dakota or Florida, that the disenfranchisement of voters, the suppression of votes, cuts across every community, and therefore, it cuts across partisanship.
Part of the reason voter suppression works is we've created this culture that says you don't challenge the outcome of elections unless the act is so egregious as to be absolutely clear on its face.
That's just always the way my mind has worked, is taking something that seems impossible, or too big, and then breaking it down into these pieces so that I know how to get there.
Confederate monuments belong in museums where we can study and reflect on that terrible history, not in places of honor across our state.
Fundamentally, the solution to economic insecurity is economic prosperity - an achievable goal. But for anyone who has grown up without financial security, there's a shadow that lies over even those who move towards independence: lack of financial literacy.
The miasma of fear that is created through voter suppression is as much about terrifying people about trying to vote as it is about actually blocking their ability to do so.
Leadership requires the ability to engage and to create empathy for communities with disparate needs and ideas. Telling an effective story - especially in romantic suspense - demands a similar skill set.
I'm going to continue to do the work we're doing on voter suppression, supporting the work that's being done by Fair Count, ensuring a fair Census count.
We're too often told that our mistakes are ours alone, but victory is a shared benefit.
Here in Georgia, we continue to grapple with our own vestiges of hate. The image carved into Stone Mountain, like Confederate monuments across this state, stand as constant reminders of racism, intolerance, and division.
The marginalized did not create identity politics: their identities have been forced on them by dominant groups, and politics is the most effective method of revolt.
Let's be clear: Voter suppression is real.
I am driven by a desire to see poverty end and economic security be a guaranteed capacity for every person. Most of the impediments or solutions are state-driven, not federally driven.
To make a good decision, you actually need to think about it, the contours and the consequences.
Good romantic suspense can never underestimate the audience, and the best political leaders know how to shape a compelling narrative that respects voters and paints a picture of what is to come.
When people doubt your right to be somewhere, the responsibility falls on you to prove over and over again that you deserve to be there.
Where I think historians can help preserve and actually restore democracy is to remind us of how we got it.
We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be cast and counted is a 'power grab.' Americans understand that these are the values our brave men and women in uniform and our veterans risk their lives to defend.
My mother grew up in abject poverty in Mississippi, an elementary school dropout. Yet, with the support of women around her, she returned to school and graduated as class valedictorian - the only one of her seven siblings to finish high school. She became a librarian and then a United Methodist minister.
Let me be clear: I unequivocally support a two-state solution as the path to resolution of the Israel and Palestinian conflict, with Israel as the national homeland for the Jewish people. Moreover, I reject the demonization and de-legitimization of Israel represented by the BDS narrative and campaign.
My life has always been about making certain I accrue the skills necessary to make my ambitions real.
I know we have to have people of good conscience who stand up against oppression. I know we have to have people who understand that social justice belongs to us all. And that wakes me up every morning, and that makes me fight even harder.
We live in a nation that spent centuries denying the right to vote to the poor, to women, and to people of color.
I do not Google myself, I do not read comments, and I barely look myself in the eye when I look in the mirror.
The consequences for failure are very different if you're a woman or a person of color than they are if you're a guy. If you're a guy who makes a mistake, you get a second chance. Often, for those of us who are outsiders, we make a mistake, and that's the end of the conversation.
I believe we need leaders who actually want to lead everyone.
While my parents both worked full-time, we still grappled with the scourge of working-class poverty. But my entrepreneurial mother used her research skills to consult. And, along with my dad, she even ran a soul food restaurant for my great-aunt.
Economic inequality is systemic, and one of the most effective barriers is ignorance about how money works beyond the basics.
I'm not going to do class warfare; I want to be wealthy.
In her second career as a minister, my mother defied a legacy of chauvinism to become a leader of our community, overseeing a church that served as a hub, offering parenting classes, a food pantry, after-school programming, and - in the wake of Hurricane Katrina - a lifeline to those ravaged by loss.
When marginalized groups finally gained access to the ballot, it took time for them to organize around opposition to the specific forms of discrimination and mistreatment that continued to plague them - and longer still for political parties and candidates to respond to such activism.
We deserve an economy that works in every county, for every Georgian, and helps families thrive - not just survive.
Antiabortion rules disproportionately harm women of color and low-income women of every ethnicity, affecting their economic capacity and threatening their very lives.
I will stand up on issues as they arise, making sure that the voices of Georgians are always being heard.
Money dictates nearly step of social mobility from the very first moments of life. How much our parents make often determines whether we go to college. It affects the jobs we get offered and the ones we can afford to take.
As a writer and former elected official, I believe in the power of words.
My primary goal is to eradicate poverty; I believe it is immoral and a stain on our society. And so when I despair or get angry, I take the time to think about how I can best achieve that goal - and then I get to work.
I do not believe in taking jobs just because the job is available. You have to want to do that job, and you should plan to be there for a while.
Writing is a side hustle that had previously enabled me to pay for rehab for my brother, purchase a car for my parents, and help friends out when they fell on hard times.
I grew up in a family where my parents worked full-time and still found themselves and their six children trapped like so many of the working poor.
I was born trying to figure out why other kids were just playing in a circle. What are you doing in the circle? Duck, Duck, Goose? What is the goose supposed to do? You could be organizing; you could be producing products that are for sale. You have a circle, but how are you utilizing it?
