The nation is faced with one of the most corporate-orientated anti-consumer Congresses in our history.

We can't understand when we're pregnant, or when our siblings are expecting, how profound it is to have a shared history with a younger generation: blood, genes, humor. It means we were actually here, on Earth, for a time - like the Egyptians with their pyramids, only with children.

My father and I made genetics history. We were the first African-Americans and the first father and son anywhere to have their genomes sequenced.

So many people of color who made major contributions to American history have been trapped in the purgatory of history.

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.