She wrote: "When I become famous, I will tell everyone that I know a hero named Marlon Peterson."
她寫道: 「當我成名後,我將四處宣傳, 我認識一位名叫 馬龍·彼得森的英雄。」
Heroes rarely look like me. In fact, I'm what garbage looks like. No, not the most appealing way to open a talk or start a conversation, and perhaps you have some questions going through your head about that. Why would this man say such a thing about himself? What does he mean? How can someone view him as a hero when he sees himself as garbage?
我一點也不像英雄, 事實上, 我比較像垃圾。 這種說法不適合演講開場, 或是用來開啟對話。 你們腦海中可能也想說, 這個人為何會這樣描述自己? 他到底想說甚麼? 一個被視為英雄的人物, 為何自稱垃圾?
I believe we learn more from questions than we do from answers. Because when we're questioning something, we're invested in taking in some sort of new information, or grappling with some sort of ignorance that makes us feel uncomfortable. And that's why I'm here: to push us to question, even when it makes us uncomfortable.
我相信從問題學到的東西, 比從答案來得多, 因為當我們提出質疑時, 我們會成長,吸收更多新資訊, 或者跟讓我們難受的無知奮戰, 這也是我站在這裡的原因, 鼓勵大家提出疑慮, 就算因此感到不愉快。
My parents are from Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost island in the Caribbean. Trinidad is also home to the only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century: the steel pan. Deriving from the African drums and evolving from the genius of one of the ghettos in Trinidad, a city called Laventille, and the disregard of the American military ... Well, I should tell you, America, during WWII, had military bases set up in Trinidad, and when the war ended, they left the island littered with empty oil drums -- their trash. So people from Laventille repurposed the old drums left behind into the full chromatic scale: the steel pan. Playing music now from Beethoven to Bob Marley to 50 Cent, those people literally made music out of garbage.
我的雙親來自千里達共和國, 一個位於加勒比海最南端的島國, 千里達也是鋼鼓的發源地, 鋼鼓是唯一 發明於 20 世紀的樂器。 發源自非洲鼓, 住在千里達拉芬蒂市的貧窮居民, 將它改良, 加上美國軍隊的輕忽── 這樣說吧, 美國於二戰期間在千里達駐兵, 戰爭結束後, 空燃料油桶被隨意棄置島上, 也就是美軍的垃圾。 拉芬蒂市的居民把舊油桶重新再造, 變成具有完整半音音階的 鋼鼓, 從貝多芬、雷鬼音樂 演奏到饒舌歌曲, 當地居民基本上用垃圾玩出音樂。
Twelve days before my 20th birthday, I was arrested for my role in a violent robbery attempt in lower Manhattan. While people were sitting in a coffee shop, four people were shot. Two were killed. Five of us were arrested. We were all the products of Trinidad and Tobago. We were the "bad immigrants," or the "anchor babies" that Trump and millions of Americans easily malign. I was discarded, like waste material -- and justifiably so to many. I eventually served 10 years, two months and seven days of a prison sentence. I was sentenced to a decade of punishment in a correctional institution. I was sentenced to irrelevance -- the opposite of humanity.
在我 20 歲生日的 12 天前, 我因為涉嫌暴力搶劫, 在下曼哈頓區遭到逮捕。 當時人們坐在咖啡店內, 有四個人中槍, 其中兩個死亡。 我和同夥共五人被捕, 我們正是千里達共和國的產物, 人們口中的不良移民, 或是讓川普和上百萬美國人 任意中傷的「錨嬰。」 我就像廢物般被丟棄, 對很多人而言,聽起來很合理, 之後我坐了 10 年 2 個月 又 7 天的牢。 我被判入監接受 10 年的牢獄懲罰, 我也因此被判定為無足輕重的廢物, 沒有生為人的價值。
Interestingly, it was during those years in prison that a series of letters redeemed me, helped me move beyond the darkness and the guilt associated with the worst moment of my young life. It gave me a sense that I was useful. She was 13 years old. She had wrote that she saw me as a hero. I remember reading that, and I remember crying when I read those words.
有趣的是, 在獄中的這幾年裡, 不斷收到的信件救贖了我, 幫助我從黑暗中與罪惡感裡走出來, 擺脫我年少無知時, 如影隨形的暗黑面。 這些信件, 讓我覺得自己並非一無是處。 有個 13 歲的小女孩來信, 她信裡提到,她視我為英雄。 我還記得閱讀這封信, 看到那句話時,我潸然淚下。
She was one of over 50 students and 150 letters that I wrote during a mentoring correspondence program that I co-designed with a friend who was a teacher at a middle school in Brooklyn, my hometown. We called it the Young Scholars Program. Every time those young people shared their stories with me, their struggles, every time they drew a picture of their favorite cartoon character and sent it to me, every time they said they depended on my letters or my words of advice, it boosted my sense of worthiness. It gave me a sense of what I could contribute to this planet. It transformed my life.
她是通信師友計畫期間的 50 多名學生之一, 在那期間我書寫了 150 封信, 是我和朋友共同發起的計畫, 這位朋友是布魯克林區的中學老師, 我的故鄉。 我們稱此計畫為「年輕學者計畫。」 每當這群年輕朋友分享他們的故事, 分享他們的掙扎, 每當他們畫上最愛的卡通人物, 然後寄來給我, 每當他們說,我信中的 隻字片語令人獲益良多, 這都大大提升我存在的價值感。 他們讓我覺得, 我對這個地球還有貢獻, 也因此改變我的人生,
Because of those letters and what they shared with me, their stories of teen life, they gave me the permission, they gave me the courage to admit to myself that there were reasons -- not excuses -- but that there were reasons for that fateful day in October of 1999; that the trauma associated with living in a community where guns are easier to get than sneakers; that the trauma associated with being raped at gunpoint at the age of 14; that those are reasons for me why making that decision, that fatal decision, was not an unlikely proposition.
因為他們的信件與分享, 他們的青春故事, 這群年輕人給我認同, 也給了我勇氣自我坦承, 一切事出有因,這不是藉口。 1999 年 10 月 那天會出事,是有因可循, 一個擁有集體創傷的社區, 在社區裡,槍枝的取得 比球鞋來得容易, 14 歲在槍口脅持下 遭到性侵的創傷, 這些原因讓我覺得, 當時會做出那樣的決定, 做出致命的決定, 並不是沒有可能的。
Because those letters mattered so much to me, because writing and receiving and having that communication with those folks so hugely impacted my life, I decided to share the opportunity with some friends of mine who were also inside with me. My friends Bill and Cory and Arocks, all in prison for violent crimes also, shared their words of wisdom with the young people as well, and received the sense of relevancy in return. We are now published writers and youth program innovators and trauma experts and gun violence prevention advocates, and TED talkers and --
因為那些信對我意義重大。 因為寫信、收信, 因為與那群年輕人溝通, 對我的人生影響深遠, 我決定將機會分享給我的朋友, 我總是惦記著他們, 我的朋友比爾、柯瑞和阿羅克斯, 也因暴力犯罪入獄, 他們曾透過書信, 與年輕朋友分享他們的智慧, 也從回信裡,重拾自我價值感, 我們現在是作家、 青少年計畫創始人, 創傷諮商專家, 槍枝暴力防治宣導人, 也是 TED 的講者。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
and good daddies. That's what I call a positive return of investment.
也是好爸爸。 我們就是正向投資報酬的最佳範例。
Above all else, what building that program taught me was that when we sow, when we invest in the humanity of people no matter where they're at, we can reap amazing rewards.
更重要的是, 我從創建這些計畫中學到, 當我們播種時, 當我們不分良莠、 用心灌溉培育人性的價值, 就會滿載而歸。
In this latest era of criminal justice reform, I often question and wonder why -- why is it that so many believe that only those who have been convicted of nonviolent drug offenses merit empathy and recognized humanity? Criminal justice reform is human justice. Am I not human? When we invest in resources that amplify the relevancy of people in communities like Laventille or parts of Brooklyn or a ghetto near you, we can literally create the communities that we want.
處在犯罪司法改革的新年代, 我常想說為什麼, 為什麼這麼多人相信, 只有那些被定罪於非暴力販毒者, 才有資格受到同情、不被放棄? 犯罪司法改革就是人性正義, 難道我不是人嗎? 當我們在社區注入資源, 以彰顯人相依相存的價值, 像是拉芬蒂市, 或是布魯克林某些區域, 或你家附近的貧民區, 我們基本上能創造願景中的社區,
We can do better. We can do better than investing solely in law enforcement as a resource, because they don't give us a sense of relevancy that is at the core of why so many of us do so many harmful things in the pursuit of mattering. See, gun violence is just a visible display of a lot of underlying traumas. When we invest in the redemptive value of relevancy, we can render a return of both personal responsibility and healing. That's the people work I care about, because people work.
我們可以做得更好。 我們能做的, 不單只是提升法律執行力, 因為這方式, 無法凸顯人性相互扶持的價值, 這也是造成這麼多人為了追求認同, 而犯罪的主要原因, 槍枝暴力,不過就是 許多潛藏創傷的明顯表徵, 當我們著眼人性 互相依存的救贖價值, 就能相對獲得 責任感與療癒的回報。 我在乎的是人, 只有這樣才會起效果,
Family, I'm asking you to do the hard work, the difficult work, the churning work of bestowing undeserved kindness upon those who we can relegate as garbage, who we can disregard and discard easily. I'm asking myself.
請各位也一起參與, 這項困難的任務, 這並不簡單, 需耗費心神,把大家 原本吝於付出的關愛, 給予被我們歸類為垃圾的邊緣人, 那群被我們輕易忽視和放棄的人們。 我問我自己,
Over the past two months, I've lost two friends to gun violence, both innocent bystanders. One was caught in a drive-by while walking home. The other was sitting in a café while eating breakfast, while on vacation in Miami. I'm asking myself to see the redemptive value of relevancy in the people that murdered them, because of the hard work of seeing the value in me. I'm pushing us to challenge our own capacity to fully experience our humanity, by understanding the full biography of people who we can easily choose not to see, because heroes are waiting to be recognized, and music is waiting to be made.
在過去兩個月, 我兩個朋友喪命於槍枝犯罪, 他們都只是無辜的過路人, 一個在回家的路上, 被路過的車開槍擊中, 另一個則是坐在咖啡店內享用早餐, 他當時正在邁阿密度假。 我要求自己在 謀殺我朋友的人們身上, 看到人相依相存的救贖價值。 因為大家曾費勁在我身上看到過, 我呼籲大家挑戰自己的極限, 來完全體驗人性, 透過理解他們完整的人生故事, 那些被我們不願重視人們的故事。 因為英雄等待著伯樂的出現, 而音樂等待被創作問世。
Thank you.
謝謝各位。
(Applause)
(掌聲)