第7章 Our Common Humanity Matters More 我们共同的人性价值更重要(3)

But it‘s all the same deal， isn’t it？ I mean，the intellectual premise is that the only thing that really matters about our lives are the distinctions we can draw．Indeed，one of the crassest elements of modem culture，all these sort of talk shows，and even a lot of political journalism that‘s sort of focused on this shallow judgmentalism．They try to define everybody down by theworst moment in their lives，and it all is about well，no matter whatever’s wrong with me，I‘m not that．And yet，you ask Martin Luther King，Mother Teresa and Bono to come here．Nelson Mandela’s the most admired person in the world．I got tickled the other night．I wound up in a restaurant in New York with a bunch of friends of mine. And I looked over and two tables away， and there was Rush Limbaugh， who‘s said a few mad things about me．So I went up and shook hands with him and said hello and met his dinner guest． And I came just that close to telling him we were 99.9 percent the same．But I didn’t want to ruin the poor man‘s dessert，so I let it go．Now we’re laughing about this but next month，I‘m making my annual trek to Africa to see the work of my AIDS and development project， and to celebrate with Nelson Mandela his birthday. He’s 89．Don‘t know how many more he’ll have．And when I think that I might be 99．9 percent the same as him，I can‘t even fathom it. So I say that to you， do we have all these other problems？ Is Darfur a tragedy？ Do I wish America would adopt sensible climate change regulation？ Do I hate the fact that ideologues in the government doctored scientific reports？ Do I disagree with a thousand things that are going on？ Absolutely．But it all flows from the idea that we can violate elemental standards of learning and knowledge and reason and even the humanity of our fellow human beings because our differences matter more. That’s what makes you worship power over purpose．Our differences matter more．One of the greatest things that‘s happened in the last few years is doing all this work with former President Bush．You know， I ought to be doing this. I’m healthy and not totally antiquated. He‘s 82 years old，still jumping out of airplanes and still doing stuff like this. And I love the guy．I’m sorry for all the diehard Democrats in the audience. I just do．And life is all about seeing things new every day．And I‘II just close with two stories，one from Asia，one from Africa．And I’m telling you all the details don‘t matter as much as this．After George Bush and I did the tsunami，we got so into this disasterwork that Kofi Annan asked him to oversee the UN’s efforts in Pakistan after the earthquake， which you acknowledged today， and asked me to stay on as the tsunami coordinator for two years．So on my next to last trip to Aceh in Indonesia，the by far the hardest hit place，a quarter of a million people killed．I went to one of these refugee camps where in the sweltering heat， several thousand people were still living in tents．Highly uncomfortable． And my job was to go there and basically listen to them complain and figure out what to do about it，and how to get them out of there more quickly．So every one of these camps elected a camp leader and when I appeared，I was introduced to my young interpreter， a young Indonesian woman，and to the guy who was the camp leader， and his wife and his son．And they smiled， said hello，and then I looked down at this little boy， and I literally could not breathe．I think he‘s the most beautiful child I ever saw．And I said to my young interpreter， I said，I believe that’s the most beautiful boy I ever saw in my life．She said，yes，he‘s very beautiful and before the tsunami he had nine brothers and sisters. And now they’re all gone.