《Find Freedom in Helping Others Find It》歌词

[00:00:02] Save Your Freedom - 英语演讲

[00:00:05] by Helping Others Find It

[00:00:07] U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Commencement Address

[00:00:12] at Stanford University

[00:00:15] President Hennessey, graduating students,

[00:00:19] and my fellow citizens in a world

[00:00:22] that must seek to come ever closer

[00:00:25] to the idea and reality of freedom under law.

[00:00:28] Thank you for inviting me to your Commencement.

[00:00:31] There is now clear evidence that,

[00:00:34] with President Hennessey,

[00:00:36] I have become a willing accomplice

[00:00:38] in the wacky walk.

[00:00:41] Each of you graduates has your own story

[00:00:46] of the years at Stanford.

[00:00:48] Your story is bound up with your parents,

[00:00:50] your family and the loved ones

[00:00:53] who sustained you here.

[00:00:55] You-indeed all of us and the entire Nation-

[00:00:59] owe them warmest thanks.

[00:01:01] Freedom must remain a central part of your story.

[00:01:06] From the beginning of our Republic,

[00:01:09] Americans have defined freedom by a moral principle.

[00:01:13] It is this: With our own freedom

[00:01:16] comes the duty to secure it for others.

[00:01:19] Freedom is the birthright of all.

[00:01:22] When we help others find freedom,

[00:01:24] we save our own.

[00:01:26] Now, two people or two million people

[00:01:31] or two billion people cannot

[00:01:34] enjoy freedom without rules.

[00:01:36] So freedom goes hand in hand with law.

[00:01:40] This is just high school civics stuff.

[00:01:44] No surprise here. But the principles

[00:01:47] are so fundamental that it seems appropriate

[00:01:50] to discuss them at your commencement,

[00:01:51] as you consider how best to

[00:01:54] shape your life and your work.

[00:01:56] Americans have the responsibility to

[00:02:00] try to advance law and freedom in other places.

[00:02:04] The task is daunting.

[00:02:06] For the stark truth is this:

[00:02:09] more than half the world lacks

[00:02:11] either the will or the power to embrace law

[00:02:14] and freedom as we know it.

[00:02:16] In the long run our last,

[00:02:18] best security is in the realm of ideas.

[00:02:22] It is urgent for our Nation

[00:02:25] and for you as young people to strive to

[00:02:28] make the case for the idea of law and freedom.

[00:02:31] We must make that case to a doubting world.

[00:02:35] On this question, the world must

[00:02:38] not be in search of two different destinies.

[00:02:41] When lawyers make their case to a jury,

[00:02:47] they sometimes have a few hours.

[00:02:50] Attorneys in our Court have thirty minutes a side.

[00:02:53] Today, in order not to trespass upon

[00:02:56] your patience or delay your celebration,

[00:02:59] I shall take but eleven minutes more to

[00:03:02] make the case about your duties

[00:03:04] as the newest trustees of freedom.

[00:03:07] You must prepare to take some risks

[00:03:12] to make the case. You may enter a realm of ideas

[00:03:16] or a real world place where freedom

[00:03:19] is not just in doubt but opposed.

[00:03:21] You must find inventive,

[00:03:24] new ways to make the case for freedom.

[00:03:27] And to be prepared for this role,

[00:03:29] to be prepared to confront the reality

[00:03:32] of half a world without law and freedom,

[00:03:35] you must know what is at stake.

[00:03:38] You must know that in Sri Lanka over

[00:03:43] a thousand people a year go to jail for

[00:03:46] three hundred sixty-five days for

[00:03:49] want of a one dollar fine.

[00:03:51] You must know that there is an African country

[00:03:57] where a woman who is raped must

[00:03:59] pay five dollars to file a complaint with the police.

[00:04:03] You must know that each year eight hundred thousand people -

[00:04:10] mostly women and children -

[00:04:11] are the subject of capture and trafficking

[00:04:15] for slavery and sexual exploitation.

[00:04:17] Human trafficking is one of

[00:04:20] the world’s most profitable businesses.

[00:04:23] All of these failings come from

[00:04:27] the absence of the rule of law.

[00:04:29] You would think this would be clear to everyone

[00:04:32] . It is surprising, though,

[00:04:35] that the concept escapes so many.

[00:04:37] In 1978, Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave a commencement speech.

[00:04:45] It was puzzling at first that,

[00:04:47] in a speech moving in so many other ways,

[00:04:50] he attacked the West for being too devoted to the law.

[00:04:54] After a few days I reached this conclusion:

[00:04:58] his understanding of law was simply different from our own.

[00:05:03] For him the concept, the history,

[00:05:06] the meaning of law made it a diktat,

[00:05:10] a ukase, a cold threat, a decree.

[00:05:14] We believe otherwise.

[00:05:16] For us the law is not an obstacle

[00:05:19] but the instrument of progress;

[00:05:21] not a command to be feared but a hope to be embraced;

[00:05:26] not a threat but a promise.

[00:05:29] The chance to build and own a small business

[00:05:33] is an essential part of any economy

[00:05:36] that seeks to establish law and freedom.

[00:05:39] That is why we want many of you to

[00:05:42] have economic success.

[00:05:43] A certain economic self sufficiency is necessary

[00:05:48] if we are to have some voice

[00:05:50] in planning our own destiny.

[00:05:52] This is essential in a world where governments

[00:05:56] are always waiting in the wings,

[00:05:58] all too eager to plan our destiny for us.

[00:06:02] And, the legal infrastructure in over half

[00:06:06] the world cannot or will not allow

[00:06:10] the dream or the hope of owning a small business.

[00:06:12] And in those same parts of the world neither

[00:06:18] can the legal infrastructure support basic

[00:06:20] improvements that engineers and builders otherwise

[00:06:23] could construct in short order.

[00:06:26] But you cannot build, say,

[00:06:29] a modern water system if there is

[00:06:32] no honest legal system to maintain it.

[00:06:34] Consider the water crisis in the sub-Sahara.

[00:06:41] You have seen pictures of a stately,

[00:06:44] dignified woman in a flowing gown with

[00:06:47] a water jug on her head. That jug weighs more

[00:06:50] than the luggage allowance at the airport.

[00:06:53] The hours, the human hours, the toilsome hours,

[00:06:57] the heart-wrenching, backbreaking hours a woman

[00:07:00] spends just trying to bring water

[00:07:03] to the family are staggering.

[00:07:06] By cautious estimates, on the African continent

[00:07:12] alone it takes over sixteen billion hours

[00:07:15] each year to bring water to the family.

[00:07:18] That is sixteen billion with a B.

[00:07:23] But new water systems cannot be built

[00:07:26] and maintained where corruption holds sway.

[00:07:30] This is not just because of the lack of money;

[00:07:33] it is because of the lack of law and property rights.

[00:07:37] There are some who say your generation has

[00:07:42] less power than previous ones

[00:07:45] because a more interdependent world

[00:07:47] reduces our power to make unilateral policy choices.

[00:07:51] In my view this understates your capacity and potential.

[00:07:56] You are among a new generation of university graduates

[00:08:00] who see an interconnectedness in our world

[00:08:04] and its universe that far surpasses

[00:08:07] what previous generations could understand.

[00:08:11] An interconnected universe is manifested

[00:08:14] in all fields of learning and endeavors.

[00:08:17] The earth sciences teach this in a concrete,

[00:08:21] formal way. Science, and in particular quantum physics

[00:08:26] and astrophysics, may soon yield stunning explanations

[00:08:30] of dark matter and of our common link to the universe.

[00:08:34] As is evident in the new communications technology,

[00:08:38] this more interconnected world touches

[00:08:41] all of our work and culture, over the whole range

[00:08:45] of the sciences, law and business,

[00:08:47] and the arts and letters. Legally blonde

[00:08:52] in a law school a half a world away.

[00:08:54] The new awareness gives you new power.

[00:08:59] You have a potential to design and to create

[00:09:03] and to define and to project your own life and work,

[00:09:07] a potential far greater than given to your predecessors.

[00:09:11] As you think how best to advance the idea of law

[00:09:17] and the freedom that it secures,

[00:09:19] please remember that you must understand

[00:09:22] our own heritage of freedom.

[00:09:24] This brings us back to the point of beginning.

[00:09:28] When the Americans rebelled,

[00:09:30] the world was puzzled. We said we wanted freedom,

[00:09:35] but it seemed to England and Europe

[00:09:37] that we were already the freest people the world knew.

[00:09:41] So we had to act at once to send a fax

[00:09:45] or an e-mail explaining our case.

[00:09:48] This was the Declaration of Independence,

[00:09:51] and then, some eleven years later,

[00:09:54] came the Constitution of the United States.

[00:09:57] The result was, and has been this:

[00:10:00] As Americans we look to the Declaration of Independence,

[00:10:05] to the Constitution, to our heritage of freedom

[00:10:09] to define who we are. And let there be no doubt:

[00:10:13] This dynamic, by which the documents of liberty

[00:10:17] are part of our self identity,

[00:10:20] part of our self image, is the envy of oppressed peoples.

[00:10:25] But this linkage, this connection between

[00:10:29] the history of freedom and who we are can disappear

[00:10:31] if we ignore its dynamic force.

[00:10:35] So it follows that the Constitution does not

[00:10:41] belong just to judges and attorneys.

[00:10:43] It is yours. And with this possession

[00:10:48] come serious responsibilities.

[00:10:50] It is not just the President who must preserve,

[00:10:53] protect, and defend the Constitution.

[00:10:56] All of us must do so. But you cannot preserve

[00:11:00] what you do not revere; you cannot protect

[00:11:04] what you have not learned;

[00:11:06] you cannot defend what you do not know.

[00:11:09] If we are conscious of the heritage

[00:11:14] that defines us we are empowered in a special way.

[00:11:18] We come to this inevitable conclusion:

[00:11:21] law and freedom become even more priceless

[00:11:25] when we give them to others.

[00:11:26] That is why law and freedom are

[00:11:29] an ultimate expression of the human spirit.

[00:11:32] As Americans we know this and, indeed,

[00:11:36] we have the inward sense that it must be true.

[00:11:39] This insight and empowerment can become

[00:11:44] all the greater for you who have studied

[00:11:47] at Stanford. Whatever your area of study,

[00:11:51] whatever your career, whatever deep personal hopes

[00:11:55] and aspirations you have,

[00:11:56] you should understand their basis in law and freedom.

[00:12:00] You must use this knowledge and power to

[00:12:05] work with your counterparts here

[00:12:06] and in other nations to advance law

[00:12:09] and freedom in your own time.

[00:12:11] If you do so, later generations will be more secure.

[00:12:16] And later generations will be grateful

[00:12:20] for the resolve you made here,

[00:12:22] for the resolve you made at this University,

[00:12:25] here at Stanford, here on this day,

[00:12:29] the day of your commencement.

[00:12:31] Thank you. We wish you well.