we rented a car and drove from jerusalem down to jericho.oon as we got on that road, i said to my wife, "i can see why jesus used this as the setting for his parable." it's a winding, meandering road. it's really conducive for ambushing. you start out in jerusalem, which is about 1,200 miles, or rather 1,200 feet, above sea level. and by the time you get down to jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2,200 feet below sea level. that's a dangerous road. in the days of jesus it came to be known as the "bloody pass." and you know, it's possible that the priest and the levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. and so the first question that the levite asked was, "if i stop to help this man, what will happen to me? " but then the good samaritan came by. and he reversed the questi

or over in jericho they have these big round things.o i was going to say in this little half a page or two pages that the people by making these bricks in a rectangular or form and piling 60 million of them together made the first flat plains, you know? flat walls. the universe had never seen flat walls before. and the first right angles. because the world had never seen those either. and it was simple. besides that, everything i was saying was supported by the ensigh so crow media britannica, it was supported by what's his name -- oh, i always block on his name. the guy who convinced me to be an it in the first place, bertrand russell. it was obvious, everybody knew it. and then on my next page was about how the babylonians then invented the 360-degree angle. now, how did i know that? because it was in the encyclopedia britannica, it was in bertrand russell's history of philosophy, it was everywhere. so i was about to write that, and then i thought, oh, my god, if eric's going to read this book, i want eric to feel what it's like to be

samaritan on life's roadside that will be only an initial act, one day we must come to see the whole jericho must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make that journey on life's highway. true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. [applause] a true revolution of values will send look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth, with the righteous indignation it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the west investing huge sums of money in asia, africa, and south america, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the country's, and say, "this is not just." it will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of south american said, "this is not just." the western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from is not just. a true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "this way of settling differences is not just." this busi

when we see that wounded traveler on the road to jericho, we will not pass to the other side.ca, at its best, is a place where personal responsibility is valued and expected. encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call to conscience. and though it requires sacrifice, it brings a deeper fulfillment. we find the fullness of life not only in options, but in commitments. and we find that children and community are the commitments that set us free. our public interest depends on private character, on civic duty and family bonds and basic fairness, on uncounted, unhonored acts of decency which give direction to our freedom. sometimes in life we are called to do great things. but as a saint of our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with great love. the most important tasks of a democracy are done by everyone. i will live and lead by these principles -- to advance my convictions with civility, to pursue the public interest with courage, to speak for greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility and try to live it as well