Shaka Senghor: Why your worst deeds don't define you | TED

177,625 views ・ 2014-06-23

TED


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翻译人员: Yingjie Wu 校对人员: Xiaoou Chen
00:12
Twenty-three years ago,
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二十三年以前,
00:15
at the age of 19,
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在我十九岁的时候,
00:18
I shot and killed a man.
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我击中并杀害了一个人。
00:21
I was a young drug dealer
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我那时是年轻的贩毒者,
00:23
with a quick temper
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脾气暴躁,
00:25
and a semi-automatic pistol.
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有一只半自动的手枪。
00:30
But that wasn't the end of my story.
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但我的故事并未在此结束。
00:32
In fact, it was beginning,
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相反,它刚刚开始。
00:36
and the 23 years since
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这接下来的23年
00:39
is a story of acknowledgment,
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是一个关于承认,道歉,和补偿的故事。
00:42
apology and atonement.
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是一个关于承认,道歉,和补偿的故事。
00:46
But it didn't happen in the way
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但这故事并没有
00:47
that you might imagine or think.
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以你可能正在想象或认为的的方式发生。
00:51
These things occurred in my life
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尤其是对我来说,
00:52
in a way that was surprising,
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这些事情
00:54
especially to me.
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在我生命中以一种令人惊讶的方式发生。
00:56
See, like many of you,
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看,我像你们中的很多人一样长大,
00:59
growing up, I was an honor roll student,
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我是一个优秀生,
01:01
a scholarship student,
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一个有奖学金的学生,
01:03
with dreams of becoming a doctor.
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有着成为一个医生的梦想。
01:05
But things went dramatically wrong
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但是戏剧性的,
01:08
when my parents separated
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当我父母分家并最终离婚时
01:10
and eventually divorced.
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一切都变了。
01:14
The actual events are pretty straightforward.
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具体的事件其实很简单。
01:17
At the age of 17,
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在我17岁的时候,
01:19
I got shot three times
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我被枪击中了三次
01:21
standing on the corner of my block in Detroit.
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就在底特律我所居住的那个街区。
01:26
My friend rushed me to the hospital.
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我朋友赶忙把我送到医院。
01:28
Doctors pulled the bullets out,
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医生们把子弹拔出来,
01:32
patched me up,
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把伤口缝好,
01:33
and sent me back to the same neighborhood where I got shot.
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又把我送回到了我被枪击的街区。
01:38
Throughout this ordeal,
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在这次磨难中,
01:40
no one hugged me,
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没有人抱过我,
01:43
no one counseled me,
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没有人安慰我,
01:45
no one told me I would be okay.
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没有人跟我说,一切都会好起来的。
01:48
No one told me that I would live in fear,
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没有人告诉过我,我会一直活在恐惧中,
01:51
that I would become paranoid,
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我会变成偏执狂,
01:53
or that I would react hyper-violently
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或者我对“被枪击”的反应将会极端暴力。
01:56
to being shot.
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或者我对“被枪击”的反应将会极端暴力。
01:59
No one told me that one day,
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没人告诉我,
02:02
I would become the person behind the trigger.
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有一天,我会变成扣动扳机的那个人。
02:06
Fourteen months later,
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十四个月之后,
02:08
at 2 a.m.,
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在凌晨两点,
02:11
I fired the shots
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我开了一枪,
02:13
that caused a man's death.
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并造成了一个人的死亡。
02:16
When I entered prison,
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当我进监狱时,
02:18
I was bitter, I was angry, I was hurt.
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我很痛苦,我很愤怒,我很受伤。
02:24
I didn't want to take responsibility.
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我不想承担这个责任。
02:27
I blamed everybody from my parents
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我把自己的过失归罪于所有人,
02:29
to the system.
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从我的父母,到社会制度。
02:32
I rationalized my decision to shoot
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我使自己开枪的动机合理化,
02:34
because in the hood where I come from,
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因为在我的成长阴影里,
02:36
it's better to be the shooter
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做一个射击者
02:38
than the person getting shot.
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总好过被别人开枪击中。
02:41
As I sat in my cold cell,
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当我坐在我冰冷的牢房里,
02:45
I felt helpless,
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我感觉十分无助,
02:46
unloved and abandoned.
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无人关爱,并被世界遗弃。
02:50
I felt like nobody cared,
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我觉得没有人在乎我,
02:54
and I reacted
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于是我带着敌意
02:56
with hostility to my confinement.
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反抗对我的监禁。
02:59
And I found myself getting
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然后我就发现,
03:00
deeper and deeper into trouble.
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自己越来越深得陷入了麻烦。
03:02
I ran black market stores,
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我在监狱里经营黑市,
03:05
I loan sharked,
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放高利贷,
03:08
and I sold drugs that were illegally smuggled
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出售非法偷运进监狱的毒品。
03:10
into the prison.
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出售非法偷运进监狱的毒品。
03:12
I had in fact become
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事实上,我的确成为了
03:13
what the warden of the Michigan Reformatory called
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密歇根少年教养院院长口中的
03:16
"the worst of the worst."
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“恶中之恶”。
03:19
And because of my activity,
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因为我的这些恶行,
03:21
I landed in solitary confinement
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在我的刑期中有七年半,
03:24
for seven and a half years
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我都被单独禁闭起来。
03:26
out of my incarceration.
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我都被单独禁闭起来。
03:29
Now as I see it, solitary confinement
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如今当我回顾时,
03:31
is one of the most inhumane and barbaric places
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单人监禁是你所能找到的
03:33
you can find yourself,
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是最无人道和最残酷的地方之一
03:36
but find myself I did.
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而我正置身其中。
03:39
One day, I was pacing my cell,
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一天,我正在牢房里踱步,
03:42
when an officer came and delivered mail.
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一个狱警进来派发邮件。
03:47
I looked at a couple of letters
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我先读了一些信件,
03:48
before I looked at the letter
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然后我看到了那封来自儿子的信,
03:50
that had my son's squiggly handwriting on it.
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他手写的字母还歪歪扭扭。
03:53
And anytime I would get a letter from my son,
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每当我收到我儿子写的信,
03:55
it was like a ray of light
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那信就像一束光,
03:57
in the darkest place you can imagine.
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射进了你能想象到的最黑暗的地方。
04:00
And on this particular day, I opened this letter,
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在那天,我打开这封信,
04:03
and in capital letters, he wrote,
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儿子用大写字母写道:
04:06
"My mama told me why you was in prison:
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“妈妈告诉我,
04:10
murder."
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你是因为谋杀而入狱的。”
04:12
He said, "Dad, don't kill.
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他说:“爸爸,别杀人。
04:14
Jesus watches what you do. Pray to Him."
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上帝能看到你的一举一动。向他祈祷吧。“
04:20
Now, I wasn't religious at that time,
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我当时并不信教,
04:22
nor am I religious now,
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我现在也不信教,
04:23
but it was something so profound
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但在我儿子的话中,
04:26
about my son's words.
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我看到了一些很深奥的东西。
04:29
They made me examine things about my life
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这些东西使我审视我的生命,
04:30
that I hadn't considered.
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思考那些我以前从未细思过的事情。
04:32
It was the first time in my life
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我第一次想到,
04:34
that I had actually thought about the fact
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我儿子将会视我为一个杀人犯。
04:36
that my son would see me as a murderer.
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我儿子将会视我为一个杀人犯。
04:40
I sat back on my bunk
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我坐回我的铺位上,
04:42
and I reflected on something I had read
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《柏拉图》中的片段在我脑中闪现。
04:44
in [Plato],
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《柏拉图》中的片段在我脑中闪现。
04:46
where Socrates stated in "Apology"
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在《申辩篇》中苏格拉底说道,
04:48
that the unexamined life isn't worth living.
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”浑浑噩噩的生活不值得过。“
04:53
At that point is when the transformation began.
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这一刻,是我生命转变的开始。
04:58
But it didn't come easy.
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但想转变并非轻而易举。
在转变中,
05:03
One of the things I realized,
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05:05
which was part of the transformation,
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我意识到
05:07
was that there were four key things.
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关键点有四个。
05:11
The first thing was,
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第一,
05:13
I had great mentors.
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我有很好的导师。
05:16
Now, I know some of you all are probably thinking,
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我知道你们有些人可能在想,
05:18
how did you find a great mentor in prison?
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你是怎么在监狱里找到很好的导师呢?
05:21
But in my case,
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但是在我的经历中,
05:24
some of my mentors
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我的一些导师
05:25
who are serving life sentences
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尽管处于终身监禁
05:27
were some of the best people to ever come into my life,
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却是我走进我生命中的最好的人。
05:30
because they forced me to look at my life honestly,
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因为他们迫使我去诚实地看待自己的经历,
05:33
and they forced me to challenge myself
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也迫使我去挑战我曾做过的决定。
05:35
about my decision making.
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也迫使我去挑战我曾做过的决定。
05:37
The second thing was literature.
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第二件重要之物是文学。
05:41
Prior to going to prison,
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在进监狱之前,
05:43
I didn't know that there were so many brilliant
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我并不知道世界上有这么多优秀的黑人诗人、作者和哲学家。
05:45
black poets, authors and philosophers,
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但之后我读了Malcolm X的自传,
05:48
and then I had the great fortune
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这对我来说是宝贵的财富,
05:51
of encountering Malcolm X's autobiography,
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它动摇了我对自己所有的成见。
05:56
and it shattered every stereotype I had about myself.
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它动摇了我对自己所有的成见。
06:00
The third thing was family.
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第三件重要之物是家庭。
06:03
For 19 years, my father stood by my side
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19年来,我父亲一直支持着我
06:07
with an unshakable faith,
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因为他相信我有能力
06:10
because he believed that I had what it took
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把自己的生活转入正轨。
06:11
to turn my life around.
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把自己的生活转入正轨。
06:14
I also met an amazing woman
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我也遇到了一位令人赞叹的女性,
06:17
who is now the mother of my two-year-old son Sekou,
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她就是我两岁儿子Sekou的母亲。
06:20
and she taught me how to love myself
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她教会了我
06:22
in a healthy way.
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如何用一种健康的方式爱自己。
06:26
The final thing was writing.
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最后一件重要之物是写作。
06:29
When I got that letter from my son,
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当我收到我儿子的来信时,
06:31
I began to write a journal
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我开始写一本日记
06:33
about things I had experienced in my childhood
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记载我童年和在监狱里的经历,
06:36
and in prison,
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记载我童年和在监狱里的经历,
06:38
and what it did is it opened up my mind to the idea
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以及这些经历是怎样让我
06:42
of atonement.
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明白“补偿”的概念。
06:45
Earlier in my incarceration, I had received
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在我被囚禁的早期,
06:47
a letter from one of the relatives of my victim,
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我曾接到过一封来自受害人家属的信。
06:50
and in that letter,
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信里,
06:53
she told me she forgave me,
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她说她已经原谅我了,
06:55
because she realized I was a young child
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因为她意识到我只是个
06:57
who had been abused
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幼时被虐待过的孩子,
06:58
and had been through some hardships
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还经历过许多苦难,
07:00
and just made a series of poor decisions.
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才会做出一系列错误的决定。
07:03
It was the first time in my life
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这是我此生第一次
07:05
that I ever felt open to forgiving myself.
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觉得或许我也能够原谅自己。
07:13
One of the things that happened
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收到这封信之后,
07:14
after that experience is that
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收到这封信之后,
07:17
I thought about the other men who were incarcerated
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我想到在我身边
07:19
alongside of me,
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其他被囚禁的人们,
07:20
and how much I wanted to share this with them.
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我想把这种感悟分享给他们。
07:23
And so I started talking to them about
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于是我就开始和他们聊天,
07:25
some of their experiences,
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了解他们所经历过的事.
07:27
and I was devastated to realize
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令我极为震惊的是,
07:29
that most of them came from the same abusive environments,
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他们中的大部分都曾和我一样在幼时饱受虐待,
07:32
And most of them wanted help and they wanted to turn it around,
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他们渴望得到帮助,渴望改正自己,
07:35
but unfortunately the system
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可不幸的是,现在的体系
07:37
that currently holds 2.5 million people in prison
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像个仓库,关押了250万的囚犯,
07:40
is designed to warehouse
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像个仓库,关押了250万的囚犯,
07:43
as opposed to rehabilitate or transform.
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却没有帮助他们改过自新、转变观念。
07:47
So I made it up in my mind
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所以我暗下决心,
07:49
that if I was ever released from prison
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如果有一天我能被从监狱里释放
07:51
that I would do everything in my power
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我会竭尽全力去改变这样的现状。
07:53
to help change that.
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我会竭尽全力去改变这样的现状。
07:57
In 2010, I walked out of prison
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2010年,我在被关押了20多年后
07:59
for the first time after two decades.
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第一次走出监狱。
现在,如果你愿意,请想象一下,
08:03
Now imagine, if you will,
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08:04
Fred Flintstone walking into an episode
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一个远古时代的人突然踏进了未来时空。
(原句:”卡通角色‘摩登原始人’走入了以未来世界为主题的动画片'杰森一家'“)
08:07
of "The Jetsons."
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08:09
That was pretty much what my life was like.
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我当时的感受大概如此。
08:12
For the first time, I was exposed to the Internet,
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我第一次接触到互联网,
08:15
social media,
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社会媒体,
08:17
cars that talk like KITT from "Knight Rider."
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带有语音的汽车,就像在科幻电影中一样。
08:21
But the thing that fascinated me the most
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但最令我着迷的,
08:23
was phone technology.
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还是通信技术。
08:25
See, when I went to prison,
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当我进监狱时,
08:26
our car phones were this big
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我们的电话有这么大,
08:28
and required two people to carry them.
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必须有两个人才能搬起来。
08:30
So imagine what it was like when I first grabbed
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所以,想象一下我第一次拿起黑莓手机时的情景,
08:33
my little Blackberry
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所以,想象一下我第一次拿起黑莓手机时的情景,
08:35
and I started learning how to text.
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然后我开始学习如何发短信。
08:37
But the thing is, the people around me,
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但问题是,我身边的人,
08:38
they didn't realize that I had no idea
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他们并没有意识到
08:40
what all these abbreviated texts meant,
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我完全不了解各种短信缩写的含义,
08:43
like LOL, OMG, LMAO,
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比如lol(大笑),omg(天啊),lmao(笑死了)。
08:48
until one day I was having a conversation
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直到有一天
08:49
with one of my friends via text,
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我和朋友在互发短信。
08:52
and I asked him to do something, and he responded back, "K."
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我请他帮忙做一件事,他回复:”k“。
08:56
And I was like, "What is K?"
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我说,”什么是k?“
08:59
And he was like, "K is okay."
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他说,”k没事”(多意:k就是okay)。
09:01
So in my head, I was like,
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我当时就想,
09:02
"Well what the hell is wrong with K?"
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“k难道会有事吗?”
09:05
And so I text him a question mark.
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所以我给他回了一个问号。
09:07
And he said, "K = okay."
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于是他又说,“k=okay”。
09:11
And so I tap back, "FU." (Laughter)
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我回复,“FU(去你x的)”。(笑声)
09:16
And then he texts back, and he asks me
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他问,“你干嘛骂我?”
09:17
why was I cussing him out.
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他问,“你干嘛骂我?”
09:19
And I said, "LOL FU,"
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我说,“lol(大笑),FU (去你x的)”,
09:22
as in, I finally understand.
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我这就会用缩写了。
09:23
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
09:25
And so fast forward three years,
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这样过去了三年,
09:29
I'm doing relatively good.
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我就过得不错了。
09:31
I have a fellowship at MIT Media Lab,
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我在MIT的媒体实验室加入了一个项目,
09:33
I work for an amazing company called BMe,
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我为令人惊叹的BMe工作,
09:37
I teach at the University of Michigan,
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我在密歇根大学教书,
09:39
but it's been a struggle
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但我内心又开始斗争,
09:41
because I realize that there are more
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因为我意识到有更多的人
09:42
men and women coming home
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从监狱出来,
09:44
who are not going to be afforded those opportunities.
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没有办法接触到这样的机会。
09:47
I've been blessed to work with some amazing
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我曾很幸运的和一些杰出的人
09:49
men and women,
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一起工作,
帮助其他被释放的人重新进入社会。
09:52
helping others reenter society,
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09:53
and one of them is my friend named Calvin Evans.
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其中一个,我的朋友,Calvin Evans。
09:58
He served 24 years for a crime he didn't commit.
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他被判冤狱,坐了24年牢。
10:01
He's 45 years old. He's currently enrolled in college.
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他45岁了,现在正在上大学。
10:04
And one of the things that we talked about
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现在,像我们在开头说过,
10:06
is the three things that I found important
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那三样我觉得在自己转变中
10:08
in my personal transformation,
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最为重要的事,
10:09
the first being acknowledgment.
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第一就是承认。
10:11
I had to acknowledge that I had hurt others.
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我必须承认,我曾经伤害过他人。
10:14
I also had to acknowledge that I had been hurt.
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我也必须承认,我曾被伤害过。
10:17
The second thing was apologizing.
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第二件是道歉。
10:19
I had to apologize to the people I had hurt.
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我必须向被我伤害过的人们道歉。
10:21
Even though I had no expectations of them accepting it,
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尽管我并不期望他们会接受我的道歉,
10:23
it was important to do because it was the right thing.
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道歉仍然很重要,因为道歉是正确的事。
10:26
But I also had to apologize to myself.
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可我也必须要向自己道歉。
10:29
The third thing was atoning.
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第三件事是补偿。
10:32
For me, atoning meant
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对我而言,补偿意味着
10:33
going back into my community
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回到我生长的社区中,
10:35
and working with at-risk youth
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帮助那些正跟我以前走着同样道路
10:36
who were on the same path,
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有风险的儿童。
10:38
but also becoming at one with myself.
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同时我也成为他们其中的一员。
10:42
Through my experience of being locked up,
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经过我的监狱生涯,
10:44
one of the things I discovered is this:
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我发现大部分被监禁的人,
10:46
the majority of men and women
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我发现大部分被监禁的人,
10:47
who are incarcerated are redeemable,
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都并非无可救药。
10:51
and the fact is,
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事实上,
10:52
90 percent of the men and women who are incarcerated
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90%被监禁的人
10:54
will at some point return to the community,
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在某一时刻都会回归到社会中。
10:57
and we have a role in determining what kind
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而我们能影响着
10:59
of men and women return to our community.
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他们回归社会后会变成怎样的人。
11:02
My wish today
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我今天的希望
11:05
is that we will embrace
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是我们能以一种
11:09
a more empathetic approach
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更有同情心的态度
11:11
toward how we deal with mass incarceration,
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讨论我们该如何对待被关押人员,
11:14
that we will do away with
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我们会放弃
11:15
the lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key mentality,
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那种把他们锁起来然后扔掉钥匙的态度,
11:18
because it's proven it doesn't work.
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因为这种态度已被证明毫无用处。
11:21
My journey is a unique journey,
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我的经历是独特的,
11:24
but it doesn't have to be that way.
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但它本可以有其他的变化。
11:27
Anybody can have a transformation
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每个人都可以改变,
11:29
if we create the space for that to happen.
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只要我们给他们足够的空间。
11:32
So what I'm asking today
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所以今天我所请求的,
11:34
is that you envision
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是你们对未来的预想,
11:35
a world where men and women
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想象有一个世界,
11:38
aren't held hostage to their pasts,
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所有人对自己的过去都没有敌意,
11:41
where misdeeds and mistakes
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我们犯的错误和罪行
11:43
don't define you for the rest of your life.
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都不能定义我们余下的一生。
11:46
I think collectively, we can create that reality,
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我想,我们可以一起创造这个未来,
11:49
and I hope you do too.
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并且我希望,你也是这么想的。
11:50
Thank you.
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谢谢。
11:52
(Applause)
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(掌声)
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