美文-毕业典礼致辞

tycoon

　Brian Williams, NBC News Anchor,Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
　　
　　The world has changed so much since you arrived within these walls. As much as we would like to hold you all and cradle1 you in our collective arms and guarantee your safe passage into that American ideal of job and family and prosperity and happiness, that no longer, sadly, comes with the diploma you will receive today. But I’m not altogether sure it ever did.
　　The Class of 1938 saw their world transformed in a way they could not have known, and many of them strapped2 on rifles and headed to Europe and the Pacific. Your equipment will be your minds, your smarts, your talents, your love of country. You are the products of greatness. Things will be asked of3 you, and lives may depend on you. And you are ready. We are ready to watch you lead.
　　In our society, which is now so full of noise, listen only to the voices you’re come to trust. In our world, which is so full of uncertainty, remember who you are and what you stand for and keep steering4 straight. In our nation, founded on the ideals of freedom and liberty, step up and say so if and when we go astray5.
　　
　　Anna Quindlen，Social critic and writer Barnard College, New York
　　
　　There are no fragile flowers seated before me today. We are smart and sure and strong enough to overcome the condescending notion that opposing viewpoints are too much for us to bear — in politics, in journalism, in business, in the academy.
　　Open your mouths. Speak your piece. Fear not.
　　You understood this message in your marrow6 even four years ago. You had to have some essential bravery to even choose Barnard. It is not the easy choice; many of you have had to explain yourselves—the university, the city, the single-sex institution. At its core it must have spoken to something within you that was daring, that was confident, that knew that you knew best what was best for you.
　　And it was not an easy time, when most of you began here. Two weeks in and the golden city was bombed and bereaved7 and burst into flames and then smoked for weeks after8. Dean [Dorothy] Denburg remembers being downtown less than a week afterwards, on Fifth Avenue, and coming upon a group of students wearing Barnard T-shirts, passing out leaflets calling for tolerance for people of all backgrounds and all religions at a time when tolerance was the last thing on most Americans?minds.
　　What a brave thing to do. What a Barnard thing to do.
　　I have a Barnard T-shirt, too. Many of them actually, but the one I like best says, “ Barnard: you got a problem with that?”
　　There is a wealth of subtext behind the slogan, but the most elemental is this: Don’t mess with9 me. I am a woman who was educated at the epicenter10 of education for women, a woman who grew to adulthood in a place that told her, every day, that her opinion was not only important, that it was absolutely required.
　Alan Greenspan，Federal Reserve Chairman Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
　　
　　I presume that I could offer all kinds of advice to today’s graduates from my nearly six decades in private business and government. I could urge you all to work hard, save, and prosper. And I do. But transcending11 all else is being principled in how you go about doing those things. It is decidedly not true that nice guys finish last.
　　I do not deny that many appear to have succeeded in a material way by cutting corners12 and manipulating associates, both in their professional and in their personal lives.
　　But material success is possible in this world, and far more satisfying, when it comes without exploiting others.
　　The true measure of a career is to be able to be content, even proud, that you succeeded through your own endeavors without leaving a trail of casualties in your wake13.
　　Our system works fundamentally on trust and individual fair dealing. We need only look around today’s world to realize how valuable these traits are and the consequences of their absence. While we have achieved much as a nation in this regard, more remains to be done.
　　Prejudice of whatever stripe is unworthy of a society built on individual merit. A free-market capitalist system cannot operate fully effectively unless all participants in the economy are given opportunities to achieve their best. If we succeed in opening up opportunities to everyone, our national affluence will almost surely become more widespread. Of even greater import is that all Americans recognize that they are part of a system that is fair and worthy of support.
　　
　　Marian Wright Edelman，Founder, Children’s Defense Fund Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y.
　　
　　Never give up. I don’t care how hard it gets— and it’s going to get very hard sometimes.
　　An old proverb says that when you get to your wits?end, that is where God lives.
　　So many people keep talking about what can’t be done.
　　But Shel Silverstein14 said: “Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never-haves. Then, listen close to me. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
　　If we believe in it, if we have faith in it, if we dream it, if we struggle for it, and if we refuse to give up, we can make America a place where truly no child is left behind.
布赖恩·威廉斯，美国国家广播公司新闻主播
　　缅因州路易斯顿，贝兹学院
　　
　　你们走进这些围墙后，世界发生了如此巨大的变化。尽管我们很想拥抱你们，呵护你们，向你们保证工作、家庭、成功和幸福这一理想中的美国生活是触手可及的，但这些却再也不能伴随你们今天将获得的文凭而来。而且，我也不确信以前文凭能带来这一切。
　　1938年那一届的学生见证了世界以一种他们无法预知的方式发展，他们中的很多人背起步枪开赴欧洲和太平洋地区。你们的装备将是你们的头脑、你们的智慧、你们的才能以及你们的爱国心。你们是伟大的作品。人们对你们寄于厚望，你们可能将决定别人的生命。你们已经准备好了。我们将注视着你们引领风云。
　　在我们这个现在充满杂音的社会，只倾听那些你们相信的声音。在我们这个充满了不确定性的世界，记住你是谁，你支持什么，然后奋勇向前。在我们这个建立在自由和自主理想之上的国度里，如果有人误入歧途时，你们要勇敢地站出来，为自由和自主大声疾呼。
　　
　　安娜·昆德伦，社会批评家和作家
　　纽约，巴纳德大学
　　
　　今天坐在我面前的没有娇弱的花朵。政界、新闻业、商界和学术界自以为是地认为：我们无法忍受与我们相左的观点，可是我们足够聪明、自信、坚强，我们推翻了这种说法。
　　张开嘴巴。说出你的观点。无所畏惧。
　　甚至在4年以前，这种思想就已经深入你们的骨髓。你们选择巴纳德大学就需要很大的勇气。这不是容易的选择；你们中的很多人都需要为自己解释——这所大学，这座城市，这所只接受女性的学院。在最核心处，它肯定触动了你内心中大胆、自信、清楚什么最适合自己的那一部分。
　　
你们中的大部分人刚开始这里的生活时，事情并不容易。刚过了两个星期，这座辉煌的城市就遭遇袭击，死伤惨重，火焰冲天，在随后的几周里都浓烟滚滚。多萝西·登伯格主任记得，不到一周后她在市中心的第五大街邂逅一群穿着巴纳德T恤衫的学生，正在分发呼吁对各种背景和宗教的人们保持宽容的传单，而当时大部分美国人都把宽容抛到了脑后。
　　这是一件多么勇敢的事，多么具有巴纳德风格。
　　我也有一件巴纳德T恤衫。其实我有很多件，但我最喜欢的一件上面写着：“巴纳德：你有问题么？”
　　这句话后面的潜台词很丰富，但最基本的意思是：别找我的麻烦。我是一名在女性教育的最中心接受教育的女子，在这里，在女性长大成人的过程中，每天都有人告诉她，她的意见不仅是重要的，而且是绝对必要的。
　　
　　艾伦·格林斯潘，美联储主席
　　费城，宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院
　　
　　我认为，根据我在私营和政府部门近60载的工作经验，我能给今天的毕业生各种各样的建议。我可以鼓励你们都努力工作、攒钱，然后成功。我也这样建议。但是，比这些都重要的是，你们在做这些事的时候要遵守原则。“好人吃亏”的说法绝对是不正确的。
　　我不否认，很多人在职业和个人生活中通过投机取巧和利用同伴，似乎在物质上收获颇多。
　　但是，不剥削他人而在这个世界上取得物质成功是可能的，而且更令人满足。
　　衡量职业的真正标准是能够通过自己的努力获得成功，而不是在自己的身后留下一堆遭受伤害的人，这才是值得满足和骄傲的。
　　我们的体制从根本上而言建立在信任和个人公平交易之上。我们只需看看今天的世界就知道这些品质的可贵，以及它们缺失后的后果。在这方面，我们作为一个国家已经取得了很多成就，但是需要做的还有更多。
　　建立在个人美德基础上的社会不应该存在任何形式的歧视。在一个经济体中，只有所有的参与者都能获得取得最大成就的机会，自由市场资本主义体制才能完全有效地运转。如果我们成功地使每一个人都获得充足的机会，我们的国家几乎肯定会变得更加富裕。更重要的是，所有的美国人都将认识到，他们所处的体制是公平的、值得拥护的。
　　
　　玛丽安·赖特·埃德尔曼，儿童保护基金会创始人
　　纽约，汉密尔顿，科尔盖特大学
　　
　　永不放弃。我不管那有多艰辛——有时候事情会变得非常艰难。
　　有句古老的谚语是这样说的：当你智穷计尽的时候，上帝就会出现。
　　很多人不停地说什么是不能做到的。
　　但是谢尔·希尔弗斯坦说：“听听那些禁止做的事，孩子。听听那些不应该做的事、不可能做到的事、不会发生的事。听听那些永远都没有做过的事。然后，仔细地听我说。一切都有可能发生，孩子。一切皆有可能。”
　　如果我们深信不疑，如果我们满怀信心，如果我们充满梦想，如果我们为之奋斗，如果我们拒绝放弃，我们能使美国真正成为一个地方，在这里的孩子一个也不能落下。