00:04good afternoon everybody hi hello I am so honored to be here with you today I am incredibly moved
00:13and inspired by all your work from groundbreaking Parkinson's research to caring for our veterans
00:21to expanding access to literacy and health care for children using your platforms to restore
00:27dignity to people who have too often been forgotten I was struck by something that each one of you have
00:35in common each one of you looked at another person suffering instead of turning away from it you chose
00:42to move toward it I have lingered on this question throughout my life what makes someone move toward
00:52another person's suffering instead of away from it it reminds me of a story that I would like to share
00:58with you I invite you to close your eyes you don't have to but if you'd like please close your
01:05eyes
01:08imagine a young family forced to flee their homeland a pregnant university student a hard-working
01:17accountant and their four-year-old child it's the dead of winter freezing temperatures they've crossed
01:25seas and with nothing but a suitcase and the warmth of each other's bodies they arrive in Germany by foot
01:33desperate for shelter it's a dark night they make their way to a refugee camp but they're not officially
01:41registered and the doors are closed to them the child is crying the mother is trying to keep her child
01:51warm while the father desperately searches for a way inside they know no one they have nowhere to go just
01:59for a moment imagine what must be happening inside their minds their bodies their hearts unable to protect
02:08their child unable to protect each other just when it seems like hope is lost a voice calls out from
02:18a window above he's shouting in another language but the message is clear we see you we can help you
02:27first
02:29there's one head out the window then two then four as they signal for the family to climb but it's
02:36impossible the windows too high and there is no way up so these people who've never met this family and
02:45have
02:45nothing to gain use their bodies to make a way up one by one they latch themselves on to one
02:54another to form a
02:55human ladder for the family to climb until they're safely inside they share what little food they have the few
03:03blankets they have and the tiny space they barely have room for themselves simply to let this family know
03:10that they are not alone that they are safe okay now open your eyes it's an extraordinary story isn't it
03:21I've thought about that story my entire life because it raises a question that I keep coming back to why
03:30did those
03:30people help that family I believe it's because it's who we are human beings instinctively protect one
03:41another before politics teaches us otherwise we are bombarded with toxic rhetoric and an endless stream of
03:49heartbreaking news that leaves us feeling scared hopeless and disempowered by the sheer scale of suffering in the world
03:58but those strangers didn't debate whether that family deserved help they simply bore witness and acted
04:07I believe that's who we are our collective compassion is needed now more than ever as we gather here today
04:15120 million people around the world has been have been forced to flee their homes at the same time the
04:21world is
04:22increasingly shutting its doors to them here in the United States the richest country in the world
04:29we're granting a record low number of people seeking asylum refugees and immigrants are being demonized
04:37families are being torn apart innocent people are being placed in detention centers instead of being given
04:43the opportunity to heal from persecution and displacement and to build a new life
04:50but when we listen to each other's stories when we hear with our hearts when we truly feel with all
04:56of our
04:57senses we remember who we are compassion is not something we need to learn it's something we need to remember
05:07many of you know that I play a doctor on the award-winning show The Pit
05:14thank you but doctors do this every day don't they they don't ask what's your immigration status can you
05:25afford this who did you vote for their job is to heal the sick and treat the wounded I think
05:32that's one of
05:33the reasons why we all have connected so deeply to the pit it reflects back to us who we really
05:39are
05:40the best of us live in our health care workers are extraordinary health care workers and the hospital is
05:46one of the few places left where a common humanity is still practiced as a reflex this is who we
05:52are
05:56I've had the unbelievable honor of becoming the first Iranian and Middle Eastern person to be
06:02nominated in the best supporting actress in a drama series category I still cannot wrap my head around
06:12this but I'm haunted by the fact that had I been born today my story likely would not have been
06:21possible
06:24because that family standing outside the refugee camp on that freezing winter night was my family that was my father
06:33my
06:34mother my older sister and me inside my mom's belly I was born in that refugee camp the very one
06:45they found shelter in
06:46because of the kindness of fellow refugees from Nigeria Afghanistan and so many other countries around the world
06:56under today's increasingly harsh asylum policies we likely would not have been granted asylum
07:08I mean it's hard to let that register today my sister is a PhD doctor of Chinese medicine and I'm
07:19standing here as an Emmy nominated actor and artist
07:25right now how many future doctors are living in Soteri refugee camp how many future filmmakers are living in tents
07:35surrounded by falling bombs and rubble how many scientists teachers writers storytellers or future Emmy nominees are waiting for someone
07:46to believe that their life is worth saving
07:50if my family's reality had bent even slightly in another direction I would have remained a statistic
07:59we survived because people I will never know and never have the chance to thank believed our lives were worth
08:07saving they didn't know my sister would become a physician they didn't know that I would become an artist they
08:13simply believed that our lives mattered and that we deserved a future
08:19today
08:20today we're gathered here at the social impact summit because people like you
08:25people who are willing to open their hearts hear another person's story and move toward their suffering instead of away
08:33from it
08:34this is the power of philanthropy it's an act of faith in someone you'll probably never meet
08:43it's the voice calling out from a window on a freezing night it's an invisible human ladder and I know
08:52it's who we really are thank you
08:55thank you
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