希拉里在耶鲁大学2018毕业典礼上的演讲

  I am so delighted to be here. Sorry we are not outside but this makes it kind of cozy. I want to thank the president and the Dean Chun. Thank you, Alex, a razorback fan from little rock, Arkansas, for getting us started on such a high note. Thanks to Alexis and Josh for your comments you’re your introduction. Thanks to all of the family and friends here today for allowing me to share this happy occasion. And good afternoon to everyone joining us by live stream from around campus. But most of all, congratulations to the Class of 2018. I am thrilled for all of you, even the three of you who live in Michigan and didn’t request or absentee ballots in time.

    

  But before I go any further, I want to be sure,did the students from the New Colleges make it here? I worried that your flights might be delayed. Sorry Franklin and Pauli Murray, I heard you had a great first year. And I am honored that this class has invited me to be your speaker. Now I see looking out at you that you are following the tradition of over the top hats. So, I brought a hat, too. A Russian hat. Look, I mean, if you can't beat them, join them!

Being here with you brings back a flood of memories. I remember the first time I arrived on campus as an incoming law student in the fall of 1969. Wearing my bell bottoms, driving a beat-up old car with a mattress tied to the roof. I had no idea what to expect.

To be honest, I had had some trouble making up my mind between Yale and Harvard law schools. Then one day, while we were still in that period of decision making, I was invited to a cocktail party at Harvard for potentially incoming law students, where I met a famous law professor. A friend of mine, a male law student introduced me to this famous law professor. I mean, truly big, three-piece suit, watch chain.

And my friend said, ‘Professor, this is Hillary Rodham. She is trying to decide whether to come here next year or sign-up with our closest competitor.’

The great man gave me a cool, dismissive look and said, ‘Well first of all, we don't have any close competitors. And secondly, we don't need any more women at Harvard.’

I was leading toward Yale anyway, but that pretty much sealed the deal.

And when I came to Yale, I was one of 27 women out of 235 law students. It was the first year women were admitted to the college. And as that first class of women prepared to graduate four years later, the New York Times reported on Yale's foray into co-education noting that the women quote "worked harder and got somewhat better grades" than the 940 men graduating with them. A fact, they went on to say, that some of the men apparently found threatening.

Well, I was shocked.

But over the years, Yale has been a home away from home for me, a place I have returned to time and again. I spoke to Class Day back in 2001 on the 300 anniversary of the university and I hope that will be the case for many of you as well. This school has been responsible for some of my most treasured friends and colleagues, people like Jake Sullivan I have watched some of you grow up, like Rebecca Shaw who is graduating today and you will hear from shortly. I have been honored to serve over the last year or two, working with some of the Yale Law School faculty, including the new Dean Heather Gerken. Now Yale grads, many of whom are also here today have worked for me in the United States senate, the state department, on my presidential campaigns and I have been so well served. I have a very dedicated campaign intern here graduating, David Shimer, the Class of 2018.

But I have to confess, of all the formative experiences I had at Yale, perhaps none was more significant than the day during my second year when I was cutting through what was then the student lounge with some friends. And I saw this tall, handsome guy with a beard who looked like a Viking.

I said to my friend, ‘who is that?’ And she said ‘well that’s Bill Clinton from Arkansas and that is all he ever talks about’. And then as if on cue, I hear him saying, ‘And not only that, we grow the biggest watermelons in the world’.

And I was like, who is this person? But you know he kept looking at me and I kept looking back. So we were in the law library one night, I was studying. But I couldn’t help but see, you know occasionally as I lifted my head up, that he was again looking at me. So finally, I thought, ‘this is ridiculous.’

So I got up, went over to him and I said, ‘you are going to keep looking at me and I am going to keep looking back, we at least ought to be introduced. I am Hillary Rodham, who are you?’ And that started a conversation that continues to this day.

It was also here at Yale that I saw a flyer in the law school on a bulletin board that changed my life. Now some of your parents or grandparents may remember flyers and bulletin boards. For the rest of you, suffice it to say, that was how we got information. It was like Facebook but the bulletin board didn’t steal your personal information.

So one day I saw a note about a woman named Marian Wright Edelman, a Yale law school graduate, civil rights activist who would go on to found the Children's Defense Fund. Marian was coming back to campus to give a lecture. I went and I was captivated to hear her talk about using her Yale education to create a head start program in rural Mississippi. And I w worked for her that summer and the experience opened my eyes to the ways that the law can protect children or come up short. Because like many of you, I learn just as much outside the four walls of the classroom as I did sit in a lecture hall. And I discovered a passion that has animated my life and my work ever since.

A lot has changed since I was here. In 2019, Yale will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the matriculation of women at the college, and the 150th anniversary of the first woman graduate students at Yale. I heard that Yale officially changed the term ‘freshman’ to ‘first year’. I also heard amazingly that the Duke’s Men and Whiffen poofs have started welcoming women. As for my long-lost Whiffs audition tape, I have buried it so deep, not even WikiLeaks will be able to find it. Because if you thought my emails were scandalous, you should hear my singing voice.

I find it very exciting that today's graduates hail from all 50 states, the districts from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Guam and 56 other countries. In your four years on campus, you’ve survived late nights in the bath cubicles, and early mornings in the Sterling stacks. You’ve trekked up science hill, maybe you’ve even found love at the last chance dance.

Now you are ready to take on your next adventure. Maybe some of you are reluctant to leave. I understand that. It is possible to feel both. Because the Class of 2018 is graduating at one of the most tumultuous times in the history of our country. And I say that as someone who graduated in the 60's.

I recently went back and looked up those famous lines from Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, because you know I usually end after saying ‘it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But it goes on, ‘it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epic of belief, it was the epic of incredulity. It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.’ Dickens was writing about the years leading up to the French Revolution. But it could have been describing the ricocheting highs and lows of this moment in America. We are living through a time when fundamental rights, civic virtue, freedom of the press, even facts and reason are under assault like never before. We are also witnessing an era of new moral conviction, civic engagement, and a sense of devotion to our democracy and country.

So here's the good news. If any group were ever prepared to rise to the occasion, it is you, the Class of 2018. You have demonstrated the character and courage that will help you navigate this tumultuous moment. And most of all, you have demonstrated resilience.

That is a word that has been on my mind a lot recently. One of my personal heroes, Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘you gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror, I can take the next thing that comes along.’ Well that is resilience, and it is so important because everyone gets knocked down. What matters is whether you get back up and keep going. This may be hard for a group of Yale soon-to-be graduates to accept, but yes you will make mistakes in life. You will even fail. It happens to all of us, no matter how qualified or capable we are. Take it from me.

I remember those first months after that 2016 election were not easy.

We all had our own methods of coping. I went for long walks in the woods. Yale students went for long walks in East Rock Park. I spent hours going down a twitter rabbit hole. You spent hours in the Yale memes group. I had my fair share of Chardonnay, you had penny drinks at Walt’s. I practiced yoga and alternative nostril breathing, you took psych and the Good Life.

And let me just get this out of the way. No, I am not over it. I still think about the 2016 election, I still regret the mistakes I made. I still think though that understanding what happened in such a weird and wild election in the American history will help us defend our democracy in the future. Whether you are right, left, center, republican, democratic, independent, vegetarian, whatever. We all have a stake in that.

Today as a person, I am okay, but as an American, I am concerned. You know Personal resilience is important but it is not the only form of resilience we need. We also need community resilience.

That is something that this class has embodied during your time on campus. Literally at times, like in the March of resilience your sophomore year. It was the biggest demonstration in the history of the school. That’s 300 plus years. Led by women of color, supported by students and faculty determined to make Yale a more just, equitable and safe place for everyone. Many of you have said that March was a defining moment in your college experience and that says something about this class in your values, because the truth is our country is more polarized than ever. We have sorted ourselves into opposing camps and that divides how we see the world. The data backs this up.  

There are more liberals and conservatives than there used to be and fewer centrists. Our political parties are more ideologically and geographically consistent, which means there are fewer northern republicans and fewer southern democrats. The divides on race and religion are starker than ever before. As the middle shrank, partisan animosity group.

I am not going to get political but this isn’t simply a both sides problem. The radicalization of American politics has not been symmetrical. There are leaders in our country who blatantly incite people with hateful rhetoric, who fear change, who see the world in zero-sum terms so that if others are gaining, well, they must be losing. That is a recipe for polarization and conflict.

Our social fabric is fraying and the bonds of community that hold us together are fractured. This is not just a problem because it leads to unpleasant conversations over the Thanksgiving dinner table. It is a problem because it undermines the civic spirit that makes democracy possible. The habits of the heart that de Tocqueville found so unique in the American character.

I believe healing our country is going to take what I call a radical empathy. As hard as it is, this is the moment to reach across divides of race, class, and politics. To try to see the world through the eyes of people very different from ourselves. And to return to rational debate, to find a way to disagree without being disagreeable, to try to recapture a sense of community and common humanity. When we think about politics and judge our leaders, we can't just ask, am I better off than I was two years or four years ago? We have to ask, are we all better off? Are we as a country better, stronger, and fairer?

That is something you have done here at Yale. You have learned that you don’t need to be an immigrant to be outraged when a classmate's father, a human being who contributes to his family and his country, is unjustly deported. You don’t need to be a person of color to understand that when black students feel singled out and targeted, we still have work to do. You don’t need to experience gun violence to know that when a teenager inn Taxis who just survived a mass shooting says, she is not surprised by what happened at school, because, I quote, ‘I have always felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.’

We are failing our children.

So enough is enough, we need to come together and we certainly need common sense gun safety legislation as soon as we can get it. Now empathy should not only be at the center of our individual lives, our families and our communities, it should be at the center of our public life, our policies and our politics. I know we don’t always think of politics and empathy as going hand in hand but they can and more than that, they must.

As former secretary Madeleine Albright writes in her terrific new book, Fascism: A Warning, she says, ‘this generosity of spirit, this caring about others and about the proposition that we are all created equal, is the single most effective antidote to the self-centered, moral numbness that allows fascism to thrive.

Of course, Madeleine had personal experience fleeing the Nazis in Czechoslovakia as a baby, returning after the war, fleeing the communist as a young girl. That brings me to one more form of resilience has been on my mind over the last year, democratic resilience.

In 1787, after the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin, who by the way received an honorary degree from Yale, was asked by a woman in the street outside the Independence Hall, ‘Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?’

And Franklin answered, ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’

Right now we are living through a full-fledged crisis in our democracy. There are not tanks in the streets, but what is happening right now goes to the heart of who we are as a nation. And I say this not as a democrat who lost an election but as an American afraid of losing a country.

There are certain things that are so essential they should transcend politics. Waging a war on the role of law and a free press delegitimizing elections, perpetrating shameless corruption, and rejecting the idea that our leaders should be public servants undermines our national unity. Attacking truth and a reason, evidence and facts should alarm us all. You and your parents have just paid for a first-class, world-class education.

As Yale history professor, Timothy Snyder writes in his book, On Tyranny, ‘To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.’

I think Professor Snyder both in that book and his new one, the Road to Unfreedom, is sounding the alarm as loudly as he can. Because attempting to erase the line between fact and fiction, truth and reality is a core feature of authoritarianism. The goal is to make us question logic and reason and to sow mistrust toward exactly the people we need to rely on. Our leaders, the press, experts who seek to guide public policy based on evidence, even ourselves.

Just this week, former secretary of state Rex Tillerson said, if our leaders seek to conceal the truth, are we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom. Perhaps it () late, but he is absolutely right.

So It means speaking out about the vital role of higher education in our society to create opportunity and equality. It means calling out actual fake news when we see it, and supporting great journalists and their reporting, maybe even by subscribing to a newspaper. Most of all, as obvious as it seems, it means voting. In every election, not just the presidential ones. So yes, thhow do we build our democratic resilience? I think it starts with standing up for truth, facts and reason, not just in the classroom or on campus, but every day in our lives. ese are challenging times for America but we have come through challenging times before.

You know I think back to the night Barack Obama was elected president. So many of us were jubilant, even I, who had once hoped to beat him was ecstatic. It was such a hopeful moment. And yet in some ways, this moment feels even more hopeful because this is a battle-hardened hope. Temperate by loss, and clear eyed about the stakes.

We are standing up to policies that hurt people, we are standing up for all people being treated with dignity. We are doing the work to translate those feelings into action. The fact that some days it is really hard to keep at it just makes it that much more remarkable that so many of us are, in fact keeping at it.

It is not easy to wade back into the fight every day, but we are doing it. And that is why I am optimistic because of how unbelievably tough Americans are proving to be. I have encountered lots of people in recent months to give me hope. The Parkland students who endured unthinkable tragedy and have responded with courage and resolve. The leaders and groups I have gotten to know throughout work together an organization I started after the election to encourage grassroots engagement that we were seeing. Everyone who is registering voters and diving into the issues facing us like never before. Some for the very first time in their lives. And I find hope in the wave of women running for office and winning, and hope in the women and men who are dismantling the notion that women should have to endure harassment and violence as a part of our lives.

So we have a long way to go, there are many fights to fight and more seem to arise every day. It will take work to keep up the pressure, to stay vigilant. To neither close our eyes nor numb our hearts or throw up our hands and say, someone else take over from here, because at this moment in our history, our country depends on every citizen believing in the power of their actions, even when that power is invisible and their efforts feel like an uphill battle. Every citizen voting in every election, even when your side loses, it is a matter of infinite faith, this faith we have in our ability to govern ourselves, to come together, to make honorable, practical compromise in the pursuit of ends that will lift us all up and move us forward.

So yes, we need to pace ourselves that also lean on each other. Look for the good wherever we can, celebrate heroes, encourage children, find ways to disagree respectfully. We need to be ready to lose some fights, because we will. As John McCain  recently reminded us, ‘No just cause is futile, even if it is lost. What matters is to keep going, no matter what, keep going.’

The Yale you are graduating from is very different from the Yale I graduated from. It is different even from the Yale that welcomed you four years ago. Four years ago, not one of Yale's colleges was named after a woman. Today, students are carrying on the legacy of a trail blazing LGBT civil rights activist, at Pauli Murray College, and celebrating one of Yale's own hidden figures, at Grace Hopper College, named after the naval officer who happened to be one of the first computer programmers in the America. Those changes didn’t happen on their own. You made them possible. You kept fighting, you kept the faith. And because of that, in the end, you changed Yale as much as Yale changed you.

And now is the time for you to make your mark on the world. I know the best. The best for you, for Yale and for America is yet to come, and you each will have a role to play and a contribution to make.

Thank you and congratulations to the Class of 2018.

 

希拉里·克林顿的演讲全文：

谢谢大家。我很高兴参与今天的活动，与大家共享这一美妙的时刻。很遗憾，今年的仪式不能在室外举行，但这个礼堂让人感到十分亲切。感谢耶鲁大学校长Peter Salovey和Marvin Chun院长的盛情邀请。感谢主持人Alex同学。感谢各位毕业生的亲友亲临现场，感谢各位通过网上直播收看毕业典礼的同学们。最重要的是，我要恭喜2018届的各位毕业生们，虽然我知道你们中有三个来自密歇根州的同学没有在2016年大选的时候准时投票，但无论如何，恭喜你们！

在我开始正式演说之前，我想确认一下Pauli Murray和Benjamin Franklin学院的同学今天是否到场？（这两个学院距离耶鲁校园中心最远）我担心你们赶来的“航班”可能会延误。

我非常荣幸被2018届的同学邀请作为你们毕业演讲的嘉宾。我看到在座各位同学都延续了“帽子盛会”的传统，我也不例外。我带了一顶来自俄罗斯的帽子。（掌声和笑声）我的意思是，如果我们没办法打败俄国人，那不如加入他们。

 

今天和你们一起，我想起了很多久远的往事。1969年的秋天，我第一次作为法学院新生来到耶鲁校园。当时我穿着喇叭裤，开着我的小破车，车顶上还载着一个床垫。我当时完全不知道在耶鲁等待着我的会是什么。

说实话，我当时在哈佛和耶鲁法学院之间纠结。在我纠结时，我受邀参加了哈佛法学院为录取新生准备的鸡尾酒会。在那里我遇到了一位非常有名的法学教授，他穿着优雅的三件套西装，戴着怀表链。我的一位男性朋友，一名法学学生，介绍我和这位教授相识：“教授你好，这是希拉里·罗德姆。她正在犹豫应该入读哈佛法学院还是我们最大的竞争对手（指耶鲁法学院）。” 这位教授不屑地看了我一眼，说道：“首先，没有学校可以和我们竞争。其次，我们哈佛不需要再招更多女生了。” 我本来也就更倾向于耶鲁，但是这个教授的态度让我下定了决心。

我在耶鲁入学时，同年级235个法学院学生只有27名女性。1969年也是耶鲁本科学院第一次招收女生。四年之后，《纽约时报》针对耶鲁男女同校的调查显示“女生比男生更加努力，并或多或少取得了更高的成绩”。《纽约时报》还指出很多男性因此觉得受到了威胁。我对此感到震惊。

这些年来，耶鲁一直都是我的第二家园。我曾经多次回到母校，也曾在2001年耶鲁300周年校庆的时候作为嘉宾发表演讲。我希望你们也能对母校有这样的感情。我在这里认识了许多我最珍视的朋友和同事， 包括杰克·苏利文等。我也见证了你们许多人的成长，比如Rebecca Shaw，她今天也将发表演讲。我在过去的一两年也有幸和耶鲁法学院的许多教授合作，包括新任院长Heather Gerken。许多耶鲁的毕业生，包括你们中的很多人，曾经和我在美国参议院、国务院和总统竞选活动中共事。与他们的合作非常愉快，特别是我的一位竞选实习生David Shimer，他也是今天毕业生中的一员。

我同时也要承认，在我所有和耶鲁有关的人生经历中，恐怕没有一件能和与比尔·克林顿的相遇相比。我二年级那年，有一次和朋友们穿过学生休息室，看到了一个高高帅帅、留着像维京人一样胡须的男生。我问我的朋友这人是谁，我朋友告诉我这是比尔·克林顿，他来自阿肯色州，他从来只知道谈论他的家乡。

巧合的是，我当时正好听到克林顿说：“才不止这样呢，我们还生产世界上最大的西瓜。” 我当时很好奇这人到底是谁。当时他在不停地看我，我也在一直打量着他。过了几天在法学院图书馆，我在学习的时候注意到他在不停地看我，而我又开始看他。我终于忍不住了，便走到他面前说：“我们既然已经这样看来看去，不如相互做个自我介绍吧。我叫希拉里·罗德姆，你是谁？”而这成为了我们之间悠长故事的开端。

还有一次，我在耶鲁法学院告示栏上看到一张传单，这张传单改变了我的命运。对了，可能只有你们的父母或者祖父母还有人知道告示栏和传单是什么。简而言之，那是我们那个时代获得信息的方式，就像今天的Facebook，唯一的区别是告示栏不会偷取你的个人信息。

言归正传，那张传单是关于Marian Wright Edelman，一位致力于民权运动的耶鲁法学院毕业生。她后来创办了保护儿童基金会。Marian当时回到耶鲁举办了一个讲座，分享她如何帮助密西西比农村的儿童提高教育质量。我被这个讲座深深震撼，那年暑假我加入了她的项目。这一经历让我认识到法律在保护儿童方面的力量和不足。与很多别的实践经历一样，我从中学到了和课堂内容同样重要的道理，而保护儿童也自此成为我毕生为之付出的理想。

从我毕业以来，耶鲁发生了许多变化。2019年，我们将庆祝首批女性研究生毕业150周年和首批女性本科生毕业50周年。我听说耶鲁在官方文件中取消了"refreshman"这样有男性偏见的用语，改为"First Year"。更棒的是，两个男子合唱团也将开始招收女生。 这让我想起了我当年申请加入合唱团的试音带，现在就连维基解密也找不到它们在哪里了。如果你觉得我的电子邮件都算得上一大丑闻的话，你真的应该去听听我唱歌。

 

今年的毕业生的来自全美50个州、华盛顿特区、关岛，以及其他56个国家。在你们四年的大学生涯中，你们经历了熬夜、图书馆抢位、早起、爬过科学之山(Science Hill)，可能还有幸在毕业前的“最后舞会”找到自己的爱人。现在崭新的冒险摆在你们眼前。或许你们之中还有人对校园恋恋不舍，这也可以理解，因为你们正处于我们国家历史上最纷乱复杂的时代之一，或许比我毕业的六十年代还要纷乱许多。

我最近翻看了狄更斯的《双城记》。我一般看完“这是一个最好的时代，这是一个最坏的时代” 就停下了。但这次我继续往后看：“这是一个智慧的年代，这是一个愚蠢的年代； 这是一个光明的季节，这是一个黑暗的季节； 这是希望之春，这是失望之冬”。

狄更斯讲述的是法国大革命前夕的故事，但同样的语言也可以用来描述今日美国的大起大落。我们生活在这样的一个时代：基本权利、公民价值、出版自由、真相与逻辑等等都在遭受史无前例的攻击；但与此同时我们也看到新的道德规范产生，公众参与度增加，对国家与政治制度的自由信念空前。

时代的巨大挑战将成为你们责无旁贷的使命。你们拥有足够的品格和勇气来应对这一动荡的历史时刻，而最重要的是，你们拥有足够的坚韧。

我最近常常思考“坚韧”这个概念。我的偶像埃莉诺·罗斯福曾说：“每一次你停下脚步与恐惧对视，你都会收获自信、勇气和力量，这样你便可以告诉自己，我已经经历过这一切了，我有勇气面对下一个挑战”。这便是坚韧。

坚韧非常重要，因为每一个人一定会经历失败，而最重要的就是经历失败之后能够爬起来继续向前。作为耶鲁大学即将毕业的学生，这听上去可能难以接受。但是相信我，你一定会犯错，会经历失败，不管你有多优秀。

如果不信的话，我自己便是一个活生生的例子。刚刚输掉2016年大选的那几个月对我来说一点也不好过。但是我们每个人都有面对失败的应对机制：我当时去森林里散步，就像耶鲁学生去东岩公园里一样；我花几个小时刷推特，你们也在耶鲁Facebook群里刷表情包；我喝了很多白葡萄酒，你们可能也在校园里的小酒吧喝酒；我练习瑜伽和交替呼吸法，你们去上那堂叫做“美好生活”的心理课。

如果你们一定要问的话，我承认我还没有完全忘记2016年的失败。我还在想那次选举，我还在后悔我当时犯下的错误，我坚信，理解美国历史上这次如此奇怪而不可预知的选举到底发生了什么，将有助于我们在未来更好地捍卫民主制度，不论你是左派、右派、中间派、民主党、共和党、独立党派还是素食主义者。这（民主制度）对于我们都很重要。作为个人，我觉得一切还过得去，但是作为一个美国公民，我感到担心。

我刚才说过，个人的坚韧很重要，但是仅仅只有个人的坚韧还不够，我们作为一个群体也需要有坚韧的品质。这一品质在2018届同学身上得到了充分的体现。

你们大二的时候参加了“坚韧大游行”，这是耶鲁历史上最大的游行活动。它由女性黑人学生领导，受到了学生和教职员工的广泛支持，旨在让耶鲁成为一个对所有人都更加平等和安全的校园。

你们中许多人说这次游行是你们耶鲁生涯中最重要的时刻，而这一认同体现了你们共同的价值观。

然而现实是，校门之外，我们的国家比以往任何时候都更加分裂。我们将自己划分进对立的阵营，而这种对立分裂了我们如何看待这个世界。

因此，我们出现了更多的自由派和保守派，而中间派却日渐式微；我们的政党在意识形态和地域上的分界更加明显，北方的共和党人和南方的民主党人都越来越少。在种族和宗教议题上的冲突比以往任何时候都更加激烈。随着中间派越来越少，党派对立愈发明显。我不想在这里讨论政治，但是这不仅仅是一个“两边都有错”的简单问题。

美国政治的极端化并不对称：我们有的领导人明目张胆地用恶毒言论挑起人民矛盾，这些领导人害怕改变并认为国际政治是一场零和游戏——如果别国获得利益，那一定说明我们国家正陷于不利。而这就是导致政治极端化和国际冲突的典型逻辑。

人与人之间的联结正在变得愈发脆弱。这一问题不仅仅导致了感恩节阖家团聚时令人不快的争执；更重要的是，它威胁到了民主制度赖以生存的根本——公民社会之精神。这一精神正是托克维尔笔下美国政治制度独特之所在。

我认为，要想治疗我们国家的创伤，我们需要“彻底的同理心”(radical empathy) 。我知道这很困难，但是我们现在必须跨越种族、阶级和理念争执的隔阂，尝试以别人的角度来看这个世界，回到理智的思辨中，学会如何友善地表达不同意见，找回我们共同的集体归属感和人性的光辉。

当我们评价政治和领导人时，我们不能只问自己“我自己现在有没有过得比几年前更好？”而是要关心“我们所有人，我们这个国家有没有变得更好、更强大、更公平？”

你们在耶鲁受到了这方面的训练。你们懂得即使自己不是移民，当一个勤勤恳恳工作的父亲被无缘无故驱逐出境的时候，你们也应该感到愤怒；即使自己不是有色人种，当黑人学生被社会孤立甚至特殊对待的时候，你也会知道平权还有很长的路要走；即使你自己不是枪击案的受害者，当你听到德州学校枪击案的一个幸存学生说“我一点也不感到意外，我一直感觉这种惨剧总有一天也会发生在我身上”时，你也会明白我们辜负了自己的孩子。我们需要团结。我们需要尽快通过枪支管控立法。

 

同理心不仅仅是我们个人生活、家庭生活和社区生活的中心；它更应该是我们公共生活、政治生活和政策制定的中心。我们往往不觉得政治和同理心有什么关系，但是他们可以也必须共生。

前国务卿Madeleine Korbel Albright在她的新书《法西斯主义：全新的警示》中写道：同理心这一灵魂的慷慨，对他人的关爱，对人人生而平等的信仰是抵抗以自我为中心，践踏道德的法西斯主义的最好武器。Albright本人曾经在婴儿时期逃离法西斯控制的捷克斯洛伐克，战争后回归家园，但不久后再次逃离共产主义政权。

这引出了坚韧的第三种形式：民主制度的坚韧。1787年在费城制宪会议之后，本杰明·富兰克林，耶鲁大学的荣誉毕业生，遇到了一位女士。这位女士问富兰克林：“博士，这个国家会是一个共和国还是一个君主国？”富兰克林答道：“共和国，但是它需要你的维护。”

我们正在面临民主危机。当然，这个危机和上个世纪法西斯崛起的大肆逮捕不一样。但是现在所发生的事件触及到了我们的立国之本。我不是作为一个选举失败的民主党人说这话，而是作为一个害怕失去我们国家的美国人。

我们应该有一些超越政治的基本价值，但是对于法律的蔑视、对出版自由的攻击、对选举合法性的抹黑、明目张胆的政治腐败、拒绝承认政治家本质上是人民公仆等都威胁着我们国家的团结。对于真相、真理、证据和事实的攻击应该让所有人都提高警惕。

在座的同学享受了世界顶级的教育。耶鲁历史学教授Timothy Snyder在他的《论暴政》一书中写道：“否定真相便是否定自由。如果真相不存在，那人们便不可能有理由质疑权威。如果不存在真实，那么一切都会成为戏码。”

他的最新著作《通向不自由之路》中，Snyder教授的警示掷地有声。威权主义的核心特征便是试图混淆真相和臆测，其目标是让人们质疑逻辑和推理，从而最终开始猜忌那些我们最需要依靠的人：领导人，媒体，试图以科学实证启示公共政策的专家，甚至是我们自己。就在这周，前国务卿Rex Tillerson说，如果我们的领导人想要掩盖事实，或者我们的人民习惯了接受与证据无关、虚假的真实，我们终将自己放弃自己的自由。

那么我们要怎么构建民主制度的坚韧？我们应该首先开始支持真相和逻辑，不仅仅在学术讨论中这样做，而要在我们的生活中时时刻刻践行这个理念。我们应该认识到高等教育在创造机会、推动平等中起到的重要作用。我们要打击虚假新闻，并支持勇敢、负责任的新闻工作者和他们的报道。最重要也最显而易见的是，去投票，在每一次选举中投票。

 

是的，我们处在一个富有挑战性的时代。我们曾经也经历过许多挑战。奥巴马当选总统的那晚，我们许多人都充满希望，甚至包括我自己—他的党内竞争对手。但是从某种意义上说，我们今天应该比当时更加充满希望，这经历过逆境冲刷和实战考验的清晰的希望。

我们鲜明反对那些伤害人民的政策，我们要为每一个人的尊严而战。我们要将我们的情感转化为行动。那些所有令人难以前行的苦难使得我们共同的坚韧变得格外可贵。

夜以继日的奋斗是极其困难的，但是我们做到了。我因此变得乐观，因为你们展现了美国人民令人难以置信的坚韧和力量。我近几个月遇到的许多人和事都给了我希望：帕克兰的学生以勇气和决心面对常人难以想象的校园惨案；通过我选举后创办的组织，我认识了许多社会运动团体和领导人，并和他们共同激励公民政治参与。

许多人自此开始了人生中第一次真正意义上的政治活动，他们鼓励选民参加投票或调研自己所关心的政治议题；一波又一波的女性参加选举并赢得政治席位；男性和女性携手改变女性遭受性骚扰和性暴力的状况。

我们还有很长的路要走，很多的仗要打，很多的事情要去改变。我们需要格外注意才能保持斗志和警惕。不要闭上眼睛，不要让我们的心变得僵硬，不要想让别人来帮忙。在这个历史节点，只有每一个人都相信自己行动的力量，不管我们的力量看上去多么渺小，我们的目标看上去多么遥远；每一个人不论自己支持的候选人是否胜利都去投票；每一个人都对自治自决充满信念并愿意作出实际让步来实现普惠的目标，我们的国家才有希望。

是的，我们需要调整步调，彼此依靠，共同寻找美、善、勇气和英雄。我们需要学会在尊重彼此的前提下讨论争议；我们要做好失败的心理准备，因为我们必然会经历失败。就像约翰·麦凯恩最近提醒我们的那样：正义的信念即使迷失，也永不脆弱。无论发生了什么，最重要的是我们一直坚持前行。

今天的耶鲁和五十年前的耶鲁有着巨大区别，甚至与四年前也大不相同。四年前，耶鲁没有一所学院以女性命名；而今天，Pauli Murray学院纪念着这位伟大的平权活动家的巨大成就；Grace Hopper学院纪念着这位耶鲁毕业生、海军第一批计算机工程师之一。这些改变不是自然而然发生的，而是你们不懈斗争带来的改变。所以我说，在耶鲁改变你们的同时，你们也在改变着耶鲁。现在是你们去改变世界的时候了。我相信，你们最好的时代、耶鲁最好的时代和美国最好的时代都在将来，而你们每一个人都将带领世界走向这更美好的未来。

谢谢！祝贺2018届毕业生！