Bryan Stevenson

And through his tears, he began talking to me, not about what happened with the man, not about what happened with his mom.

but what had happened at the jail.

And he told me on the first night several men had hurt him.

He told me on the next night he'd been sexually assaulted by several people.

He told me on the night before I'd gotten there so many people had hurt him, he couldn't remember how many there had been.

And I remember hugging this boy while he cried hysterically for almost an hour.

And I finally got him calm and I said, look, I'm going to get you out of here.

You stay right here.

And I'll never forget trying to leave the jail.

And that little boy grabbed me by the arm.

He said, please, please don't go.

Please don't go.

I said, no, it's all right.

It's okay.

You stay right here.

I'm going to try to get you out of here.

And when I left the jail, the question I had in my mind, of course, was who's responsible for this?

And the answer is we are.

We've allowed fear and anger to demonize whole generations of children.

I believe all children are children.