[ 你想住在一个什么样的美国 ] 苏珊·赖斯
演讲全文：
美国常驻联合国代表苏珊·赖斯大使在佛罗里达柯洛盖博斯迈阿密大学(University of Miami)毕业典礼上的演讲
（拟定讲稿）
大家晚上好！
谢谢科布（Cobb）大使的美言介绍。让我们也向沙拉拉（Shalala）校长掌声致意。谢谢你为国家的杰出服务，也谢谢你对迈阿密大学的卓越领导。
今天来到这里，我真的倍感荣耀。我希望，如果我讲得足够好，会有人邀请我去Rat（指校园中著名的学生聚会场所——译注）。
这是一所优秀的大学。很难想象美国还有哪所学校像迈阿密大学这样，在过去二十年来声誉如此迅速跃升。这要归功于沙拉拉校长、她之前的富特（Foote）校长以及这个富有活力和多元的学生群体。
贵校何其有幸，有着富于远见卓识的领导者。你们这些毕业生就是硕果：你们英气勃发，即将挑战世界。
过去四年里，你们努力探究一些大奥秘……比如什么是钢箭头会社（Iron Arrow Society）。你们曾经分担了这里痛苦的经历……比如坦佩（Tempe）抢劫。你们曾经克服巨大的困难……比如在皮尔逊（Pearson）的生活。你们曾经面临巨大的挑战……比如对西米诺尔队（Seminoles）的反击。
所以，祝贺你们，2012届毕业生！你们取得了巨大的成就。我希望你们对自己感到骄傲。我知道，我们其他人都以你们为荣。
让我们也给在座的家长掌声致意。对我而言，我的孩子已经大到足以让我知道做父母的不易。为了对你们的未来进行投资，他们付出了巨大的牺牲。我希望你们始终记得这点——不要忘了给母亲打电话。
我还记得自己的毕业典礼。大略的印象。不过我不太记得毕业典礼演讲。事实上，就像沙拉拉校长所说的：“毕业典礼演讲者应当把自己想成参加爱尔兰守灵仪式的人。人们的聚会需要你，不过没有人期望你多言。”
尽管如此，今晚，我希望你们在欣赏自己的成就时，能思考一下未来和你们将塑造的世界。
你们在激烈变革和充满潜力的时刻毕业。你们这一代，一次又一次成为变革的引擎。
想想阿拉伯觉醒运动。从突尼斯到利比亚，从埃及到叙利亚的年轻人，在愿景和勇气的推动下，通过技术和社交网络连在一起，起来反抗独裁政权。他们说，受够了。受够了压迫。受够了失业。受够了腐败。受够了使用武力镇压人民的暴君。
他们不只想要变革。他们要求变革。而且他们带来了变革。
我永远忘不了去年11月访问利比亚的班加西（Benghazi）。就在几个月前，卡扎菲（Qaddafi）军队还把守着城门，他发誓要把那里变成废墟。现在班加西是自由
之地。我遇见了创作革命节拍的说唱艺人。我遇到了敢于反抗卡扎菲的年轻诗人、漫画家和博客作者。我遇到了年轻的工程师，他们改装了利比亚东部的电话系统线路，从而使卡扎菲的党羽不能继续监听反对派的通话。
我见到了大无畏的年轻记者穆罕默德那布斯（Muhammad Nabbous）的父母，他为解放祖国献出了生命。他们共同播下了他们现在称作“自由利比亚”的种子。
在利比亚，就像在整个阿拉伯世界一样，尚不确定他们能否取得最终的成功。但是这些年轻人做出了极大的努力。他们不打算就此停步。
和他们之前的许多人一样，这些年轻人受到对自由的普遍向往的鼓舞。正如马丁路德金（Martin Luther King Jr.）博士所说：“灵魂中有种声音为自由呐喊。”每个人——不论属于何种宗教、种族、性取向、性别或文化——都有那种内在的饥渴，那种按捺不住的冲动，要求得到我们共有的人权。
作为美国人，我们热情支持了这种对自由和人类尊严的深刻要求。我们的历史决定了这样。我们的原则要求这样。我们的安全也依赖于这样。
有人声称，我们不能把我们的理想置于自己的利益之上。然而必须明确：我们的国家利益是我们的理想推进的。因为自由社会、民主社会，最终更繁荣、更和平，更公正，从而更稳定；因为我们的理想决定了我们作为一国人民的本色以及美国作为世界领袖所扮演的角色。
实践自由是每一代人的工作，但是自由原则在我们创始之际便已存在。每一代的年轻美国人都推动扩大我们的自由，因为这是美国之道。
现在，这项责任落到你们的肩上。
如你们所知，迈阿密大学在1961年1月以前曾是全白人的学校，其后，学校董事会勇敢地决定不分种族招收学生。这种融合是受到来自于佛罗里达州以外的启发——从我们南边的邻邦，像我们一样出生于对殖民统治的反叛。即使在1961年，这所大学的领导人从我们的多元化所看到的是，我们的未来不靠限制自由；而是靠扩大自由。
在我的那个年代，一位叫纳尔逊曼德拉（Nelson Mandela）的年长的政治囚徒走出了一条和解的道路，在南非结束了种族隔离制度。1989年，对自由的向往结束了分裂全球超过40年的冷战。是的，我们知道共产主义根本无法实现。我们知道，不可能让半个世界永远被禁锢，但有时仍然觉得世界好像永远不会改变。
突然间，改变发生了。过时的领导人让路了。墙破裂了。人们几乎不能预测这种破裂什么时候会出现，它的规模会变得多么大。但今天，我们再次站在历史的这样一个关头。我们都必须尽自己的一份努力。
你们这一代人已
经造就了自己的英雄。特别是我记得，伊朗一位名叫妮达（Neda）的女青年，她在2009年6月被当局杀害，当局窃取了选举结果，镇压了和平示威。妮达和其他年轻的伊朗人冒了一切风险，他们的运动没有成功——尚未成功。但他们的英勇行为激励着附近国家的年轻人。自那以后发生的一切一定让德黑兰暴君们不寒而栗。
一位在突尼斯一个宁静的城市卖东西的小贩厌倦了警察的骚扰，自焚而死。他绝望的行为引发了席卷突尼斯的示威游行，在短短四个星期里就结束了几十年的独裁统治。
后来，埃及的年轻人涌入解放广场（Tahrir Square）。普通公民在巴林的珍珠圆场（Pearl Roundabout）和也门街头集会。中小学生在叙利亚的德拉（Deraa）从电视里目睹革命，然后冲出去涂写标语，要求本国的暴君下台。革命降临叙利亚。
我们不知道这一切的结果将如何。我们不能期望在最近的将来一切会一帆风顺，轻而易举；确实不会。民主的进步很少是直来直去或一蹴而就，我们自己的历史就是证明。但自由永远是明智的长期选择。一个自由的世界是一个更安全的世界。
巴拉克欧巴马总统在就任之前曾这样说：“民主的体制——自由市场、自由的新闻媒体、强大的公民社会——不可能一夜之间就建成，也不可能在枪口下实现。所以我们必须认识到，罗斯福曾谈到的自由——特别是免于匮乏和免于恐惧的自由——不只是来自于罢免一个暴君和发放选票；它们只有在一个人的人身和物质安全有保障之后才能实现。”总之，我们需要一个更免于匮乏和暴政的世界。为了提高国内的安全，我们必须改善世界各地的生活。
你们这代人把握了这点。想想所有那些你们的父母不能接受或并不真正了解社交工具——像脸谱（Facebook），优兔（YouTube）、Skype和推特（Twitter）。他们允许示威者进行组织而不被暴露，彻底改变了提出异议的方式。技术使局部的斗争即刻全球化，推动了政治变革。
放眼世界，变革正在由像你们一样的人来推动——像你们一样的人，但比你们拥有得更少：比我们在美国享有的自由更少、安全更少、机会更少。所以，你必须尽你们的力量。这种深刻的变化必须由你们去推动，这是美国的传统，这是美国的利益。
我们在美国面临的挑战不同，但同样值得奋斗。我们需要你们质疑、参与、创新、奉献，并要求享有我们开国元勋承诺给我们的全部自由和机会。我们需要你们带头。
因此，先来扪心自问：在你们自己的孩子大学毕业的时候，你想住在一个什么样的美国？
是男女同工同酬的美国吗？是一个你所爱和选择结婚的人不再成
为政治辩论资料的美国吗？是慢性疾病不导致长期贫困的美国吗？
是大学对所有人开放并上得起的美国吗？是一个我们生产我们所消耗的能源，我们的能源消耗不再威胁我们气候的美国吗？是一个有越来越多的好工作、继续出口和创新、使我们的经济仍然领先世界的美国吗？
无论你的愿景是什么，带头让它成为现实。
正如欧巴马总统所说：“我们的历史是一个乐观与成就与不断奋发的历史，在世界上独一无二。这是全世界都期待我们引路的原因。”
正是因为你们拥有如此之多——现在还包括受到了这个卓越的迈阿密大学的教育，你们有如此之多可以贡献。没有你们，美国将不能战胜所面临的巨大挑战，就像没有美国，世界将无法战胜所面临的挑战一样。因此，建设我们伟大的国家，建设我们正在变化的世界。
有时，沙拉拉校长为毕业班提出十条训诫。那么请让我用十条如何改变世界的训诫来结束讲话。
第一，总向自己提出挑战。
第二，脱离自己的舒适状态——你们还年轻，不要走轻松之路。
第三，去闯荡世界——让自己风尘仆仆。
第四，学习更多的语言——通过其他人的视野看世界。
第五，注重在引发你激情的事，因为很难在你不热爱的工作中出类拔萃。
第六，无所畏惧。如果不打碎至少一丁点儿坛坛罐罐，就很难取得进步。
第七，不害怕战斗，如果你是在为正义而战。
第八，永远不要过于想得到一样东西以致为了它你要做违背自己信念的事。
第九，不必担心别人对你会有什么看法。正如苏斯博士（Dr. Seuss）所说，“按自己的本色做人，直抒己见。因为那些介意的人不重要，而那些重要的人不介意。”
第十，超越金钱。舒适与经济保障固然有益，但还不够。应该去创造变化，而不只是坐收其成。
2012届的同学们，你们是真正第一代全球化的年轻人。
你们这一代人正在以令人难以置信的速度改变着世界。
你们这一代人必须给仍睡在尘埃中的人带去希望。
因为在灵魂中确实有声音为自由而呐喊。在精神中有力量驱使我们去解放受镣铐禁锢的人。
在我们可爱的国家里，有着呼唤我们去服务和去奋斗的东西。
现在该是开创你们想要看到的变化的时候了。你们有条件，你们有力量，你们有责任。
我知道你们能。我知道你们会。祝贺全体毕业生。祝你们前程顺利。
谢谢你们。
2012年5月11日
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苏珊赖斯（Susan E. Rice）
美国常驻联合国代表 （U.S. Permanent Representative to t
he United Nations）
美国常驻联合国代表团 （U.S. Mission to the United Nations）
佛罗里达柯洛盖博斯（Coral Gables，FL）
U.N. Envoy Rice on Foreign Policy and American Ideals
12 May 2012
Susan E. Rice
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
Coral Gables, FL
May 11, 2012
Commencement Address by Ambassador Susan E. Rice,
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations,
at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida
AS PREPARED
Good evening, everyone!
Thank you, Ambassador Cobb, for that kind introduction. Let’s hear it for President Shalala. Thank you for your distinguished service to our country and your extraordinary leadership of the University of Miami.
I’m truly honored to be here. And I’m hoping that if my speech is good enough, someone will invite me to the Rat.
This is an amazing university. It’s hard to think of another school in America whose reputation has soared as high as the University of Miami’s over the past twenty years. That’s a tribute to President Shalala, to President Foote before her, and to this vibrant, diverse student body.
Your university has had the great fortune to be led by visionaries. And you are the result: graduates who are fired up and ready to take on the world.
Over the past four years, you’ve grappled with the great mysteries…like what the Iron Arrow Society is. You’ve confronted the painful parts of your heritage…like getting robbed at Tempe. You’ve coped with great hardships…like living in Pearson. And you’ve confronted great challenges…like all those comebacks against the Seminoles.
So congratulations class of 2012! You’ve achieved something enormous. I hope you’re feeling proud of yourselves. I know the rest of us are.
Let’s also hear it for the parents out there. My kids are old enough for me to know that it has not been easy for the Moms and Dads either. They’ve made big sacrifices to invest in your future. I hope you’ll always remember that — and don’t forget to call your mother.
Now, I remember my own commencement. Kind of. But I don’t remember much about the commencement speech. In fact, as President Shalala has said, “Commencement speakers should think of themselves as the body at an Irish wake. They need you in order to have the party, but nobody expects you to say much.”
Even so, tonight, as you relish your accomplishments, I want you to think about what lies ahead for you and the world you’ll shape.
You are graduating at a moment of furious change and enormous potential. And, time after time, the engine of that change has been your generation.
Think of the Arab Awakening. Powered by vision and daring, linked by technology and social networks, young people from Tunisia to Libya, from Egypt to Syria rose up to reject authoritarian regimes. Enough, they said. Enough
repression. Enough unemployment. Enough corruption. Enough of the tyrants who use brutal force against their people.
They did not just want change. They demanded it. And they made it happen.
I will never forget visiting Benghazi, Libya, last November. Just months earlier, Qaddafi’s forces had been at the city’s gates, and he vowed to lay it to waste. Now Benghazi is free. I met the rappers who created the beat of the revolution. I met the young poets, cartoonists, and bloggers who dared defy Qaddafi. I met the young engineers who rewired the phone system for eastern Libya so that Qaddafi’s henchmen could no longer intercept the rebels’ calls.
I met the parents of a fearless young journalist named Muhammad Nabbous who sacrificed his life to free his country. Together, they have all planted the seeds of what they now call “Free Libya.”
In Libya, as throughout the Arab world, their ultimate success may not yet be assured. But these young people have tried mightily. And they are not about to stop now.
Like so many before them, these young people are inspired by the universal yearning to be free. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom.” Every person—no matter her religion, race, sexual orientation, gender or culture—shares that innate hunger, that irrepressible impulse to demand the human rights we all share.
As Americans, we have embraced this profound demand for freedom and human dignity. Our history defines it. Our principles demand it. And our security depends on it.
Some argue that we can’t place our ideals over our interests. But let’s be clear: our national interests are advanced by our ideals. That is because free societies, democratic societies, are ultimately more prosperous, more peaceful, more just, and thus more stable. And that is because our ideals define who we are as a people, and the role that the United States plays as a leader in the world.
The practice of liberty is the work of each generation, but the principle of liberty was present at our creation. And each new generation of Americans has pushed to enlarge our freedom, because that is the American way.
Now, that imperative falls to you.
As you know, the University of Miami was an all-white school until January 1961, when the school’s board bravely decided to admit students regardless of race. In part, the inspiration for integration came from outside Florida – from our neighbors to the south, born like us out of the revolt against colonial rule. Even in 1961, this university’s leaders looked at our diversity and saw that our future lay not in limiting freedom; it lay in expanding freedom.
In my time, an elderly political prisoner named Nelson Mandela walked down the path of reconciliation and ended apartheid in South Africa. In 1989, the yearning for freedom ended a Cold War that split the globe for more than forty years. Yes, we knew communism could
not deliver. We knew that half a world could not remain shackled forever, but still it sometimes felt like the world would never change.
And then suddenly it did. Old leaders gave way. A wall cracked. You can rarely predict when such a crack will emerge and how large it will become. But today, we stand again at such a hinge in history. And we all must do our part.
Your generation is already producing its own heroes. I remember, especially, a young Iranian woman named Neda who was murdered by the regime in June 2009, as it stole an election and crushed peaceful protests. Neda and other young Iranians risked it all, and their movement did not succeed – not yet. But their bravery inspired young people in nations nearby. And everything that has happened since must make the tyrants in Tehran shudder.
History changed when a produce seller in a quiet Tunisian city got fed up with police harassment and burned himself to death. His desperate deed sparked protests across Tunisia that ended decades of dictatorship in just four weeks.
Then, young people in Egypt flooded into Tahrir Square. Ordinary citizens rallied in Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain and in the streets of Yemen. Schoolchildren watched the revolutions on television in Deraa, Syria, then rushed out to paint graffiti demanding their own tyrant go. And revolution came to Syria.
We do not know how all this will turn out. We cannot expect the immediate future to be smooth or easy; indeed, it will not be. The advance of democracy is rarely linear or swift, as our own history shows. But liberty is always the wise long-term bet. A freer world is a more secure world.
Before he became president, Barack Obama put it this way: “The institutions of democracy – free markets, a free press, a strong civil society – cannot be built overnight, and they cannot be built at the end of a barrel of a gun. And so we must realize that the freedoms FDR once spoke of – especially freedom from want and freedom from fear – do not just come from deposing a tyrant and handing out ballots; they are only realized once the personal and material security of a people is ensured as well.” In short, we need a world freer both from want and tyranny. To improve security at home, we must improve lives around the world.
Your generation gets this. Think of all those social networking tools that your parents can’t stand or don’t really understand – like Facebook, YouTube, Skype, and Twitter. They have revolutionized dissent by allowing protestors to organize without being exposed. Technology powers political change by making local struggles instantly global.
Across the globe, change is being driven by people like yourselves—people like you, but with much less than you: less freedom, less security, less opportunity than we enjoy in the United States. So you must do your part. It is in the American tradition and in the American interest that such profound change must also be driven by you
.
The challenges we face here in the U.S. are different but no less worthy. We need you to question, to participate, to innovate, to serve, and to demand the full measure of freedom and opportunity that our founders promise. We need you to lead.
So start by asking yourself: What kind of America do you want to live in when your own kids are graduating from college?
Is it an America where men and women actually earn the same pay for the same day’s work? Is it an America where whom you love and choose to marry is no longer fodder for political debate? Is it an America where chronic illness cannot lead to chronic poverty?
Is it an America where college is accessible and affordable for all? Is it an America where we produce the energy we consume, and the energy we consume no longer threatens our climate? Is it an America with more and more good jobs that continues to export and innovate so that our economy remains the world’s leader?
Whatever your vision is, lead in making it real.
As President Obama has said, “Ours is a story of optimism and achievement and constant striving that is unique upon this Earth. And that is why the rest of the world looks to us to lead.”
Precisely because you have so much, now including this great University of Miami education, you have so much to give. The great challenges America faces will not be met without you, just as the great challenges our world faces will not be met without America. So shape our great nation and shape our changing world.
President Shalala sometimes offers 10 lessons for graduates. So let me conclude my own 10 lessons about how to change the world.
First, always challenge yourselves.
Second, get out of your comfort zone—you’re too young to take the easy road.
Third, go travel—get dust in your hair.
Fourth, learn more languages—see the world through other eyes.
Fifth, focus on what stirs your soul. It’s hard to excel at anything that you don’t love.
Sixth, be fearless. It is difficult to make progress without breaking at least a little crockery.
Seventh, don’t be afraid to go down fighting, if you’re fighting a righteous battle.
Eighth, never want something so badly that you do something you don’t believe in to get it.
Ninth, don’t sweat what other folks may think of you. As Dr. Seuss said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
Tenth, be about more than money. Comfort and economic security are good, but they’re not enough. You should be about creating change, not just counting it.
Class of 2012, yours is the first truly global generation of young people.
Your generation is changing the world with incredible speed.
Your generation must give hope to those who still sleep in the dust.
For there truly is something in the soul that cries out for freedom. There is something in the spirit that drives us to free
those still in chains.
There is something in our beloved nation that calls us to serve and to strive.
Now is the time to start being the change you want to see. You have the privilege, you have the power, and you have the responsibility.
I know you can. I know you will.
Congratulations graduates, and best of luck.
Thank you.