Kant Kwote

The practical imperative therefore will be the following: Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in our own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end, and never simply as a means.
Immanuel Kant

Kant is stating that true morality is the recognition that neither we nor others are here on earth to be used as a means to obtain selfish ends, regardless of how often people are, in fact, treated this way. Kant has a point. Most human on human pain, I believe, comes down to this--regarding others as mere tools to achieve desires. Immorality comes from not seeing another, not truly recognizing his or her separate personhood or humanity. A mugging, for example, occurs only when a mugger does not see a full-fledged person, only a thing with money that he wants. Incest and rape derive from an inability to see a female for who she is but merely as an object through which to gratify one's desires for sex and dominance. Murder often occurs from seeing only something that stands in the way of one's goals, or worse, a means to some twisted, perverse power over life and death.

I believe that Kant is saying that each of us is an end in himself, that we are valuable just because we are--and that true morality comes from recognizing and treating both self and others as beings with inherent worth.

This doesn't mean that we need to play kissy-face with wicked souls. Truly, it is an act of valuing self and others to stand up to those who would use and degrade those weaker than themselves, giving them opportunity to see their error and mend their ways.

Or perhaps Jesus said it best: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."