A basic sense of fairness.

I don’t have a fully formed philosophy. I don’t come to this out of any particular religious tradition. Indeed if anything, I’ve seen the consequences of religion as ideology; as a justification for trumping the rights of the individual. I’ve . . . I’ve . . . I’ve seen a lot of that, although I’ve also seen times where people, out of religious sentiment, come to the human rights cause and stand with its values. But I think that at a personal level, I’m probably more motivated by almost a Contian perspective. I really do tend to identify with the other person as if it’s myself. And I do at a pretty profound level think that I shouldn’t treat other people in any way that I wouldn’t want to be treated myself. And that basic sense of sort of fairness, or . . . or recognition of the human decency, or the . . . just the human being in any person I think is a lot of what pushes me. You know when I . . . when I see victims, when I speak to people around the world, I do have this tendency to identify with them and to recognize that there but for the grace of God go I, and that I should, you know, uphold their humanity if I want mine own respected. And . . . and that . . . I think that more than anything else – which is not so much religious, it’s just kind of a world view – is what tends to motivate me.

Recorded on: 8/14/07