It's a story that, by now, is tragically familiar: an American hostage, alone with his captor in the desert, executed on camera by militants of the so-called Islamic State. The murder of aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig , formerly known as Peter, followed the same grotesque script as the murder of fellow Americans Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff.
But the familiarity of those images should not desensitize and stop us from pausing to reflect and fully appreciate Kassig's life and work, said Charles Sennott, co-founder of GlobalPost and head of The GroundTruth Project .
"This man was extraordinary," Sennott said. An Army Ranger-turned-EMT, Kassig fought in the Iraq War in 2007 and then returned to the region to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees. He disappeared in Syria in October 2013.
Humanitarian work provided Kassig with a powerful compass in the middle of the moral chaos of war, Sennott said.
"War is about clarity of purpose, and it's often about finding a moral clarity in your life where you know thi really matters and you're willing to take risks to do it," he explained.
"I think Peter was one of those guys," Sennott said.
To hear more from Charles Sennott, tune in to his full interview on Boston Public Radio above.
