I feel comfortably qualified to talk about anything, but that's a personal problem and I'm dealing with it.

I got a chance to witness firsthand what I think many people in America can relate to, is when you show up in a room qualified, when you show up in a room with extraordinary expertise and credentials, there are a lot of Americans who know that hurt, that you are still going to be treated in a way that does not respect to you fully

… I was wary of engaging in any sort of savior complex; the incarcerated are most qualified to speak about their own experiences, but I wanted to tell people some of what I saw and heard and read about in these places. I had to get it out of me. And, given my time in law school and as a legal professional who has dealt in these systems, I felt I had the kind of background that was needed to do this telling. This wasn't a faceless black mass I was trying to humanize, these were specific stories I needed to get out of me and felt were especially compelling…

Tonight I am going to speak on the class struggle and I am going to make it so plain that even a lawyer can understand it.

I have confidence that I will win, that I will get justice, that is why I came to court and as a lawyer, I know how the system works, I am not seeing any foul play bearing in mind the administrative bottlenecks. I know I will get justice.

I am compelled to plead my own defence before this Court. There are two reasons: first, because I have been deprived almost entirely of legal advice; second, because only he who has been outraged as deeply as I, and who has seen his country so forsaken, its justice so reviled, can speak on an occasion like this with words made of the blood of his own heart and the very marrow of truth.

I am competent, and has, in the past, been exposed to some challenges which I hope to overcome with the support of the Parliament.

You're damn right when you say I've shown people how to make a firebomb, I've done my time for my crimes, and I should be able to talk about them.

I know how to advocate for them because I feel like I basically lived through it

I was concerned about the legality of the program, and so I asked lawyers — of which you got plenty of them in Washington — to determine whether or not I could do this legally. And they came back and said yes.

Lionel: And as for your case, don't you worry. I've argued in front of every judge in the state. Often as a lawyer.

I think my early challenges prepared me for what I do now. I can empathize because I have been there. I can relate because I know that pain.

"Is that the way you feel about it?" I asked.
"I'm a lawyer. I deal with the law as it is, not how I feel about it."

Let the hand of the law strike me down if it will, but I ask that my story be heard and considered.