"I invoke the right of parley!"

In my line of work I speak to people whom I don't know and never will. Daily I listen to their fragile voices over the phone telling their live's stories. Some begging for understanding, some for their own amusement it may seem. I speak to people who've lost everything, and some who are not willing to lose anything. People grasp to their belongings or are thankful for the tiny amount they have to pay as "gratitude" for being alive. The point in my telling this is that some have nothing. Literally nothing.

It often raises the question of the value of human life. "We are all born equal in rights and opportunities" it is said. Yet, why do we end up so differently? What is it that give some people everything and others nothing? And why should it even matter? If we are all equal in value, then why do we not treat each other this way?

The value of a human life today is not based on some predestined form of measurement that we all fullfill just being born. It is based on achievements. For instance, the bum on the street is replaceable but the doctor in the O.R. is not. Because one accomplishes and the other does not. Regardless of the personal history, general opinion or predestined value, one is "worth" more than the other in the eye of society. Thus, we are all hypocrits.

I like to think that whenever I can make a difference, whenever people lay their lives in my hands, that I do all I can to make that difference. But I don't, and the only thing I can say for myself is that at least it makes me feel bad.