But today, graduates, I want to urge you to do just the opposite.Today, I want to suggest that if you truly wish to carry on the Oberlin legacy of service and social justice,then you need to run to, and not away from, the noise.Today, I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find.Because so often, throughout our history, those have been the places where progress really happensthe places where minds are changed, lives transformed, where our great American story unfolds.For example, think back to the struggle for women's suffrage and the story of a leading suffragist and Oberlin alum named Lucy Stone.People screamed at her. They spat on her. They even threw prayer books at her as she tried to speak.Her opponents declared that letting women vote was "unnatural," would lead to child neglect and all kinds of social ills.So I'd say that debate was pretty polarized, wouldn't you?And think about President Roosevelt's struggle to pass the New Deal a few decades later.FDR's plan for Social Security was called "socialist," a "fraud on the workingman."
但在今天，毕业生们，我想敦促你们做相反的事情。今天，我想建议你们，如果你真的希望继续秉承欧柏林学院的服务社会和社会正义的传统，那么你需要走进这些噪音，而不是远离噪音。今天，我要敦促你们去积极寻找你所能找到的最有争议、两极分化和僵局最严重的地方。因为常常，在我们整个历史中，这些地方是真正发生进步的地方，改变思想，改变生活，这是我们伟大的美国历史所在。例如，回想一下争取妇女选举权的斗争，以及著名的选举权主义者、欧柏林学院的校友露西・斯通的故事。人们喊着抗议她。人们对她吐口水。当她演讲时，他们甚至向她扔了祈祷书。她的反对者宣称让妇女投票是违反自然的，这将导致儿童被忽视和各种社会弊病。所以我想说辩论是两极分化很严重的，不是吗？想想罗斯福总统在几十年后为通过新政做的努力。罗斯福的社会保障计划被称为“社会主义的”，是“对工人的欺骗”。
暂无注释
