Whatever Happened to the Human Race?

"I saw the film series that was the genesis of the book in Dallas, Texas. It made clear to me that the notion that a life was expendable – the Nazis had a phrase for a life that was not worthy of life, but I can’t remember the German – is dangerous. Once any culture decides that there are any lives not worth living or not worth saving, the threat to society is profound. I was pro-life but I didn’t really have the deepest level of intellectual basis for it. It was more, ‘That sounds reasonable to me.’ But from that point on, I was able to articulate and define my position very differently because I came to understand the heart of this – that every human life has intrinsic worth and value. That shaped a worldview for me. And it gave me a sense that the uniqueness of the United States and its Declaration of Independence was that all of us were created equal, the concept that one’s last name or personal wealth or occupation or ancestry did not make one person more valuable than another person. Their jobs might pay more; they might be able access more because of their last name; but it didn’t mean that their intrinsic worth was more. That the child with Down’s syndrome had worth and value and we should not discount the worth of that child and say, well, this kid plays baseball really well, he’s worth more than the kid who can’t swing the bat. It gave me real perspective. It solidified it. I already believed that there was a need to be involved, but the book took it to a totally new level and made me realise that there was not a dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. That one could not live his or her life with duplicity, and say that on Sunday what I do is my church life, which is completely different from what I do the rest of the week, which is my secular life. I realised that there had to be an integration – so that there was one essential life and life message. I didn’t read the book. I read some articles and interviews that he had done, and I was just simply disappointed. I felt that, for whatever reason, he had become very angry and bitter. I don’t know Frankie. It was so out of character from the message and spirit of his mother and father. I didn’t even recognise his parents in him."