I have always tried to do what's right. My mama taught me that. But in the world of politics, doing what's right may not get you the results you want. In fact, you may get what you don't want.

Few would disagree that I was a good and dedicated public servant. At times, I was a bit too trusting, but I have always believed that the public interest comes first. I always fought for the underdog, for those at risk, for the common good. And for the past eight years that's been a full-time job - seven days a week, sixteen, seventeen, sometimes eighteen hours a day. I put in those hours because I wanted to solve every problem I could every day I held elected office.

But that left very little time for reading a book, much less writing one. And for years I have been yearning to tell my story, in my own way, in my own book.

1. This book gives me a chance to tell the untold stories, to reveal secret meetings, to talk openly about special deals. For the first time, I share my real feelings about MOVE, about what really happened - about an assault by police on the MOVE house that was so fierce and deadly that it makes the assault on Rodney King look like child's play.

But eveil that's not the whole story. In Goode Faith is the whole story. It's about my being born in the South with a speech impediment so severe I would go for weeks without talking in school. It's about my father who took to the bottle to ease the frustration of being trapped in an unjust system, then turned on his own family in violent rages.

It's about my abiding faith in God that helped me overcome a debilitating lack of self-esteem to attain the lofty position of mayor of the fifth-largest city in the United States. It's about my never quitting, my never giving up, no matter what the odds. It's about my successes. It's about my failures. It's about my life. It's about living in Goode faith.