Chapter 2. It Starts With Love And Compassion Let's start here. What defines a person? I believe that, above all, it is the values. To understand a person, we must start from their values. So what are my values? What direction does my moral compass point in? I believe it all starts with love and compassion.
The awakening of my social and political conscience began around the time I started college, in 2003, at the age of 16. It was a time that was full of moral challenges and controversies. The West was still recovering from the major psychological and social impacts of the 9/11 attacks. There was concern about the erosion of civil liberties and the rise in racism in response to the attacks, in many Western countries. The US and it allies entered the Iraq War under dubious justifications, triggering an intense anti-war movement, the 12
