"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws, but conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

“Today was a dark day in Birmingham. The policemen were mean to us. They got their violent, angry dogs and turned them loose on nonviolent people, unarmed people. But not only that, they got their water system working. And here and there we saw the water hose, with water pouring on young boys and girls, old men and women, with great and staggering force. Birmingham was a mean city today. But in spite of the meanness of Birmingham, we must confront her with our kindness and our goodness and our determination to be nonviolent. As difficult as it is, we must meet hate with love. As hard as it is, we must meet physical force with soul force....Just let them get their dogs and let them get their hose, and...we will leave them standing before their God and world covered with the blood and reeking with the stench of their Negro brothers."

Source: 1963 speech

“We have to fight for those young men standing on street corners with little hope for the future besides ending up in jail. We have to break the cycle of poverty and violence that’s gripping too many neighborhoods.”

Source: McCain-Obama speeches at 99th NAACP Convention Jul 12, 2008

“We need more cops; but we also need more families. How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child? How many times have our hearts stopped in the middle of the night with the sound of a gunshot or a siren? How many teenagers have we seen hanging around on street corners when they should be sitting in a classroom? How many are sitting in prison when they should be working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction? How many? Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities. But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child--it’s the courage to raise one.

Source: Chicago church speech, in Change We Can Believe In, p.235 Jun 15, 2008