Ron Dellums

“I'lI say this: I recall entering Congress in 1971 and being called a 'feminist' by members of my own party as if it was a dirty word. They didn't realize that I wore that label as a badge of honor.”

“Look at black people dying and suffering in South Africa. I ask why. We've dropped bombs on no one, we've harmed no one in the world, yet for some incredible reason, black people have suffered at an extraordinary level all over the world.”

“We want Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa to know that we will stand shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, until apartheid is eradicated.”

“Peace is more than simply the absence of war; it is the absence of conditions that give rise to war.”

“The Constitution is designed to inconvenience one person from taking us to war. War is a very solemn and sobering and extraordinary act, and it should not be granted to one person.”

“Basic human needs like food cannot be corporate questions.”

“Detroit's financial challenges - the decline of the American auto industry, the impact of the global economic recession, declining population, and an erosion of the municipal tax base - are key to understanding what led this great city to an inability to provide basic city services or to carry out the normal functions of a municipality.”

“The government should not do everything for everybody all the time, but it should provide basic services to everyone who needs them. Education ought not be contingent on income or where you live. Neither should health.”

“I have been a lot of 'firsts' on the national political stage, including the first African American congressman from the Bay Area and one of the first Democratic Socialists in Congress.”

“I am so blessed that I have been able to live long enough to see a woman nominated for president.”

“If you're going to use the public resources, you need the public benefit.”

“Let's make Oakland a model city.”

“I want balance in my life.”

“If I wanted to be a celebrity, I would have taken guitar lessons.”

“The government ought to be in the business of delivering health, education, housing, and basic services to people without a lot of game playing. There ought to be comprehensive childcare, a comprehensive approach to housing, a sane, rational way to finance education. But I also strongly believe in the notion of fundamental individual freedom.”

“Being a mayor was an awesome, difficult job. Being the chair of the Armed Services Committee was perhaps the most incredible time in my life, because I got up one morning, and the peacenik from Berkeley was chair of the Armed Services Committee, and it was the greatest - one of the great challenges of my life.”

“I think democratic socialism will ultimately prevail in this country because it makes an enormous amount of sense.”

“Failure is not a crime. The crime is not trying.”

“If being an advocate of peace, justice, and humanity toward all human beings is radical, then I'm glad to be called radical. And if it is radical to oppose the use of 70 percent of federal monies for destruction and war, then I am a radical.”

“Economics should not drive you out of the community.”