 And until we have justice for all, none of us can have none of us. In 2005, I found myself standing in front of railroad tracks. It was one of those hot and humid days in South Florida. And as I stood there, I was a broken man. And for moments, I was able to block out that oppressive heat and humidity. Because as I was standing there, the only thing that I can think of was how much pain I was going to feel when I jumped in front of an oncoming train. You see, that day I stood there, I was a drug addict. I was homeless. I was recently released from prison. I didn't own anything but the clothes on my back. Now, I knew that my parents didn't raise me to be in that position, but there I was. And I waited. And I waited. And I was thinking, when that train hit me, was I going to die instantly? Or did I have to go through moments of agonizing pain? But even the thought of the pain associated with getting ran over by a train did not make me move. And so I waited. And I waited. But the train didn't come that day for some reason. I say, but by the grace of God. And I crossed those tracks, and I walked two blocks. And I checked myself in the drug treatment. And after completing drug treatment, I moved into a homeless shelter. And while I was living in that homeless shelter, I decided that I needed to do something to break that vicious cycle of drug addiction. And so I enrolled in college in a paralegal program. And I did extremely well. And I was encouraged to continue my education. And so I pursued a bachelor's in public safety management with a concentration in criminal justice. I figured since I had a lot of experience getting arrested on the streets and appearing before judges that somehow that experience would translate into success in the classroom. And it did. And eventually, I was accepted in a law school. And in May of 2014, I graduated from FIU College of Law with a Juris Doctorate degree. And while the applause sounds so beautiful, and I may have to reclaim a couple minutes of my time, my story does not have a happy ending because I live in the state of Florida. And because of that, in spite of the many obstacles I've been able to overcome, in spite of a commitment, a lifelong commitment to giving back to my community, to making my world a much better place, I still cannot vote. In spite of the many contributions to my community, I cannot practice law. And I can't even afford to buy a home in some places because I'm restricted until my civil rights have been restored because I live in the state of Florida. Where over 1.68 million Floridians face a lifetime ban. They say felons. You probably said felons. We use the word returning citizens. Because we know that individuals, because we know that individuals who've made mistakes are still somebody's son and daughter and father and mother, that they're human beings first. And so rather than give them a scarlet letter of shame to carry on for the rest of their lives, we decided to change things and started calling them returning citizens. And so now here we are, 1.68 million returning citizens living in the state of Florida, where we have elected officials, where we have a system that refuses to restore our civil rights back to us when we've served our time. And at some point in 2011, we said enough was enough. And we got together and we started going throughout the state of Florida just talking to regular everyday people, whether they were black, whether they were white, whether they were progressive, whether they were conservative. We talked to everyone that would stop long enough to listen. And what we found blew my mind that felonness and franchisement is not an African-American issue. While we may close our eyes when we think of the criminal justice system and the image that pops up as an African-American young man with gold teeth and dreads and probably pants hanging off his butt, the reality is, this is not an African-American issue. Of the 1.68 million people in Florida who cannot vote, African-Americans only account for a third. So that means that there are three times as many people in the state of Florida who cannot vote that don't look like me. They look like most of you out in this audience today. And so I know that rather than it being an African-American issue, it's an all-American issue. The other thing that I found out when traveling the state of Florida was that you would hear the narrative, oh, Republicans don't want felons to get the right to vote because they know they'll vote Democrat. But the problem that I had with that was that that means that only Democrats get in trouble. And I thought about it, and I was like, wait a minute. When I was arrested, the police didn't ask me if I was Democrat or Republican. When I was sentenced, the judge didn't ask me if I was Democrat or Republican. And as I traveled the state of Florida, I found that there were so many people that were impacted no matter what their political persuasion was and that that narrative that created an illusion that only Democrats cared about getting their rights restored, only Democrats were the ones that were losing their rights was a false narrative. And I understood that there was a system that needed to be unrigged. I understood that there was a system that created these narratives in order to divide us and to move us further apart from each other. I understood that there was a system that was designed to make us lose our contact along the lines of humanity. When I looked at this system, what I seen was that the only victims of this system was us. When you look at the partisan bickering back and forth, we never won. We never benefited from it. It was systems that told us that the blacks are the problem. It was systems that told us that Mexicans are the problems. When in reality, when we think about immigration, if we really look at it, we know that immigration was not a Latino issue. It has never been a Latino issue. We've had immigrants from all countries. And amongst those immigrants were people of African descent. But it's that system that creates this false narrative that has us putting immigration squarely in a Latino box and criminal justice squarely in an African American box. When the reality is that they were both the same because we were dealing with human dignity and human rights. The system tries to prevent us from understanding this. And when we stood up and when we created an all-inclusive campaign that was all American, that chose to pick people over politics, that chose to transcend racial and political lines, we discovered something that was beautiful. We discovered the essence of what made this country beautiful. A great example was after the hurricanes. When people came together, they didn't wait for politicians. They came together and no one cared the color of your skin. No one cared who you voted for in last election. All they seen was it was another human being in need. And they came to aid. And it is that spirit that we embrace because it is only along the lines of humanity that we're able to accomplish so much. It is in moments like that where this country truly is a beautiful country, where this country truly is great. And we took that in spite of the fact that the system told us we would never have any movement on this issue as of last week, we have qualified the Voting Restoration Amendment for the 2018 ballot. The system said that we would never get it off the ground but the people said yes we could and they did. The system said that this poor, formerly homeless, drug addict, African-American male didn't have the skillset to even lead an initiative but we're now at the cusp of transforming not only the state of Florida but this country that we're at the cusp of being a shining example of how we really get things done in this country. And that's by shedding the partisan, the labels and shedding the racial labors and coming together at that sacred space. That space where we were born into. No one was born into a Republican. No one was born into being a Democrat. No one was born into whatever. They were born as a human being, as a human being. And so when the system tells us that we have to run a campaign based on fear, we say no, we run it based on love. When the system says we have to run a campaign based on division, we say no. Ours is based on inclusion. Because if this country is to be great, then all of us must be in this thing together. And so, and so while you, we will have people that's attaching to this campaign that may have other ideas in mind, I'm gonna tell you that what is gonna save this country is not another blue state. What's gonna save this democracy is not another red state. Our prosperity, our hope for more inclusive democracy can only be saved by the United States. And so I asked you all tonight that if you believe in creating a more inclusive democracy, would you stand to your feet? If you believe that there should be justice and liberty for all to stand to your feet. If you believe, if you believe that no matter what your sexual identity is that you should be treated with dignity, stand to your feet. If you believe that there's no such thing as being illegal, that there are no illegal human beings, stand to your feet. If you believe in forgiveness, stand to your feet. And I want you all to, before you sit down, I want you all to, just say it with me. And when we get to those last six words, when you get to these last six words, I need it to come from here because we must unrig this system in order for those six words to be true. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.