Mandy Patinkin[1] shared a memorable interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”[2] Patinkin, the great actor, brought a true “Reason for the Season” to the comedic host’s holiday fair. That “Reason” is our reason—our ability to design our own global human ethos, our ability to design and preserve a better world. Please enjoy some excerpts of Mandy Patinkin’s voice of reason:

Stephen Colbert: My first guest tonight is a Tony and Emmy winning actor who plays Saul Berenson on “Homeland.”[3] Please welcome Mandy Patinkin. Thanks for being here, and thanks for bringing your beard along this time. You don’t always travel with it. It’s a pleasure to see you.

Mandy Patinkin: You’re welcome, you’re welcome. It’s a pleasure to see you.

SC: The finale is Sunday. Am I going to be okay, because I watch it like this, gripping things, every Sunday? Is Saul going to be okay? Just tell me that.

MP: Well, I can’t tell you that. I can’t tell you anything specific. But I can tell you that you’ll be happy about some things and confused about others. You’ll be relieved about a few things, and you’ll walk away wondering, what was that all about. (General laughter)

SC: That’s what I feel about the entire world right now! [Redaction] The line of evil runs through all of us. But there’s still free will. Not every single person causes the death of other people for political ends.

MP: But anyone who causes the death of someone else is placing themselves above the law and thinking that they are God. No human being is God. And it is essential that we stop this paradigm of violence that Saul has learned. That’s what he learned at the end of season 4, and that is what he tries to remember every day, and that’s what Mandy tries to remember. And by that I mean—it hasn’t worked. It hasn’t worked, this violence, an eye-for-an-eye. The new paradigm—we have to come up with a new paradigm, and that’s what Saul is clear about. And what is that new paradigm if war isn’t working? War—you spend 4-trillion dollars on this war. What is being spent on the marginalized people in humanity? All of these young Muslim, wonderful young Muslim men and women that have no education, no opportunity, no good schooling and so what do they do? They look for someone else who says “We’ll give you a better life!” Why aren’t we taking that money that’s used for bombs and making schools and hospitals and homes and opportunities? (Applause) Why?

SC: Well, you’re putting me in a position to defend bombs, right now. And, I’m not going to defend bombs, but I will say…

MP: There are people who will, because bombs make a lot of money for a lot of people! But education doesn’t make much of money.

SC: But there are people here in the United States that will say why would we spend that money over there to do that, because we’re not taking care of our own roads, our own bridges, our own schools, our own people; there are poor people here…

MP: We certainly need to do that here, too, and with 4-trillion dollars you can do a lot of good here, too.

SC: You could do a lot of good here.

MP: Yes, sir! (Continued excerpts below. Please read on.)

Let’s do a lot of good, like Mandy Patinkin and Stephen Colbert observe—both here at home and wherever we can help, where marginalized people are living in wretched circumstances that were not of their making. They are innocent. They need us. And we need them.

Peace and Goodwill!

Image: Mandy Patinkin in 2008, (A cropped picture of Mandy Patinkin posing with a fan at the Israel @ 60 event in Washington D.C. on June 1, 2008.) Author Jeff Hardy released photo to the public domain worldwide.[4]

[1] Current star of “Homeland” and veteran star stage, screen and TV (“The Princess Bride,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Criminal Minds,” etc.)

[2] See Xfiniti for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” 12/18/15

[3] See: http://www.sho.com/sho/homeland/cast/16474/saul-berenson

[4] Found online, see: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MandyPatinkin.jpg