Let us remind our leaders that there is no place for personal interests in politics.

I have taken many lives in my life. Many children, perhaps husbands, wives, parents. Perhaps it is only just that this same violation was inflicted upon me. Perhaps it is just that one who lives a life of war becomes a refugee from it.

FLIES IN DISGUISETell me,Have youReally seenFlies in a child's eyesOr heard their hungry criesIn the middleOf the night?Don't lie.You can protest all you wantAbout peaceAnd genocide,But unless you are willingTo take beatings for your fights,Your display of trendy showmanshipSimply ain't right.Go on,Carry your useless signsAbout an issue the worldAlready abhors,But it's TRUEHeartfelt actionsThat will preventSuits andSenatorsFrom creatingAny more wars.

But unlike Mama, I would not go to heaven. My secrets padlocked the gates. I'd be a torn kite stuck in the dead branches of a tree, unable to fly.

How foolish to believe we are more powerful than the sea or the sky.

A human being can only take so much when their basic rights as a citizen of the earth are being denied to them – or sold at a high cost.

Home is where you feel more welcome, more secure, have more rights, where you are loved. This place can be any place even away from what you would normally call home.

A nation ringed by walls will only imprison itself.

Racism in impenetrable. Staying in America means always fighting. For our own sanity and safety, we must go.

When an entire segment of the world is burned and reduced to a lawless battleground for thugs and mercenaries, a land where government does not exist, where the slate of history is being wiped out and hope has drowned in gallons of innocent blood, the only respite comes in the form of the open seas and what lies beyond the horizon. So ships are boarded and pain is tolerated just a little while longer.

An exile, said Zafar, is a refugee with a library.

I was born walking, born in the nowhere between galaxies.

Lose your freedom, and become a slave by borrowing.

The most important thing is our dignity. If we have that we can survive on bread and water.