評論
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That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.
那是一個驚人的論斷，在我們生活的每一天里被無數次證實。它在某種程度上說明了我們與外部世界有無法脫離的聯系，只要我們活著，就會對其他人的生活有影響。
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
但是，哈佛大學2008屆的畢業生們，你們會對其他人的生活產生多大影響呢？你們的智慧、你們應對高難度工作的能力以及你們所接受的教育賦予了你們獨特的地位和責任。甚至你們的國籍也讓你們與眾不同，你們中的絕大多數人都屬于這個世界上唯一的超級大國。你們投票的方式，你們生活的方式，你們抗議的方式，以及你們給政府帶來的壓力，都會產生超越國界的影響力。這是你們的特權，更是你們的責任。
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped to change. We do not need magic to transform my world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
如果你們選擇用自己的地位和影響為那些沒有發言權的人吶喊；如果你們不僅能認同有權勢的人，而且也能幫扶無權勢的人；如果你們會設身處地為沒有你們這些優勢的人著想，那么你們的存在將不僅是你們家人的驕傲，更是成千上萬因為你們的幫助而生活得更好的人的驕傲。我們不需要用魔法改變世界，我們自己的內心就有這種力量：我們擁有想象力，可以讓這個世界變得更美好。
