For me, an area of moral clarity is: you're in front of someone who's suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act.

But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when I think of activists.

The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money

There is nothing wrong with underlining personal agency, but there is something unfair about using personal responsibility as a basis for assigning blame while simultaneously denying those who are being blamed the opportunity to exert agency in their lives

Equity is the only acceptable goal

Some people talk about Haiti as being the graveyard of development projects.

Since I do not believe that there should be different recommendations for people living in the Bronx and people living in Manhattan, I am uncomfortable making different recommendations for my patients in Boston and in Haiti.