Michael On
![Michael On](/assets/img/authors/unknown.jpg)
Michael On
bigger hope people within
I hope I inspire people to dream bigger than what they are living, but a dream within their reach.
homophobic singled
The rap community has been singled out as more homophobic than other groups, but I don't think that's right. It's homophobic, all right, but no more so than the heavy-metal community or the Hollywood community or any other community.
best good greater kids rock saying wherever
We have a saying in my house, my kids and my girlfriend. We say, 'Be your best for the greater good, and rock out wherever you are.'
dissing egos factions grabbing issues possibilities rap social women
Rap has so many possibilities that need to be explored. There are different factions of rap, but some are in a rut. Rap doesn't have to be about boosting egos and grabbing your crotch and dissing women. There's a way to make political and social issues interesting and entertaining to the young rap audience.
matter single
It doesn't matter if you're black, white, gay, straight, come from different countries, different language... every single person is significant and is meaningful.
somebody wished
You get everything you could have ever wished for if you're willing to give that eternal bliss away to somebody else, to give it back.
ask baghdad duty iraqi life music night played soldiers streets talk took trip war year
I took a trip in 2004, a year after the war started in Iraq. I played music on the streets of Baghdad for Iraqi civilians. I'd also play for U.S. soldiers at night when they were off duty in the bars. Then I would talk to people, and I would film them and ask them about their life and the conflict.
connect experience feeling identified life looking meet people
I always identified with that feeling of being an underdog. So I always was looking to connect with and meet people from other cultures, to experience people living a different life that I am.
art change culture east experience faith lost middle music open people playing restored seeing traveling
Traveling to the Middle East and playing music for people on the street, for soldiers, for people in hospitals, and for people who lost their homes, and seeing people open up through the experience of music really restored my faith in music, in art, and in culture to change things.
hating hurting people upset
With all the people hating and hurting each other, I don't understand how people could get upset about people of the same sex caring for each other.
midwife operating surgeon teachers tolerate
You wouldn't tolerate an underperforming surgeon in an operating theatre, or a underperforming midwife at your child's birth. Why is it that we tolerate underperforming teachers in the classroom?
solved union worse
I was a union member in my youth as well and I went on strike, and I don't think it solved anything. It only made the situation worse for everyone involved.
achievement became children devalued education exams figures ground labor measures praising production tractor
Unfortunately, the real achievements of children on the ground became debased and devalued because Labor education secretaries sounded like Soviet commissars praising the tractor production figures when we know that those exams were not the rock-solid measures of achievement that children deserve.
arms attachment care found homes lives love might ourselves secure sister stability
My sister and I know our lives could have been different - radically, unthinkably, irretrievably different - if we had not been adopted. We might have found ourselves in homes without love, stability or kindness. We might have found ourselves in care for much longer, without the secure attachment that being cradled in a mother's arms brings.