Jesse White

My top goal as your Secretary of State is to save lives by reducing fatal traffic crashes. When I established the Teen Driver Safety Task Force, the goal was to improve Illinois' graduated driver licensing law and, even more importantly, to save lives.

I tell the people that hire us, if we don't get a standing ovation when we're finished with our performance, it's free - and we've always been paid.

You cannot imagine how many people called, how many letters, how many emails. Every place I go, people ask me, 'Please, don't quit.'

I first met Dr. King in 1954 when I was a student at Alabama State University and a member of a local church down there. He was in town to organize a rally against public transportation. Rosa Parks had been arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man, which was illegal back then.

It is every parent's nightmare when a child is in trouble with the law. As a parent, you can do your best to guide young people, but as adults, they make their own choices and live with the consequences of those decisions.

When you come through this world, and you become successful, you have to give back.

I believe that the Democratic Party is a party of the people, and we have to make sure that we have good representation so that those services that the people richly need and deserve will go forward.

I speak very quickly, even for an elected public servant. So if I fast-talk you, I'm not trying to mislead you.

Some people collect coins. Some people collect rocks. Some people collect stamps. I colllect kids and hope I can do something for them.

These kids are looking for direction, for identification. Kids join gangs because they need a father figure or they want to be part of a group.

We just believe when you have parental involvement, we are going to get a better bang for the buck, so to speak. And we also encourage parents to speak with their young people about the importance of safe driving. And also remind them, too, they cannot be distracted.

My parents made a great sacrifice to make sure that we had something wonderful at Christmas, and through the help of the state and others, we were able to have a good meal.