I Loved To Read, But I Always

Equality And Self-determination Should Never Be Divided In The Name Of Religious Or Ideological Fervor.

My Childhood Library Was Small Enough Not To Be Intimidating. And Yet I Felt The Whole World Was Contained In Those Two Rooms. I Could Walk Any Aisle And Smell Wisdom.

My Father Is A Chemist, My Mother Was A Homemaker. My Parents Instilled In Us The Feeling That Learning Was The Most Exciting Thing That Could Happen To You, And It Never Ends.

Anyone Can Tell You That How You're Raised As A Child Has A Great Deal To Do With How You Behave As An Adult And Whether You Have Complexes Or Whether You Need To Prove Yourself Or All That Kind Of Stuff And Yet The Mother In A Traditional Family Who Has Raised A Child Never Makes It In The History Books.

If Our Children Are Unable To Voice What They Mean, No One Will Know How They Feel. If They Can’t Imagine A Different World, They Are Stumbling Through A Darkness Made All The More Sinister By Its Lack Of Reference Points. For A Young Person Growing Up In America’s Alienated Neighborhoods, There Can Be No Greater Empowerment Than To Dare To Speak From The Heart — And Then To Discover That One Is Not Alone In Ones Feelings.