以下是太阳城网赌平台法学院院长文森特·鲁格在该校2019年马丁·路德·金纪念日上的主旨演讲全文. Scholarship Banquet.
I thought I would offer some thoughts about Martin Luther King’s legacy in our current era, in relationship to the service and accomplishments of the students we are celebrating here tonight. Although what I am about to say to our student finalists is said often, 这句话值得重复，因为这是真的:你们站在许多前人的肩膀上, and some who are with you here tonight. 你的成功俘获了许多人的希望和梦想，他们牺牲了自己，把你带到这里. This is in no way meant to diminish the hard work that you did on your own to succeed, 但马丁·路德·金奖学金表彰的是一种传承，我希望你们能自豪地接受这种传承.
Boston College Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau
So, in that spirit, I need to begin by spending a few minutes talking about my mother. I am going to do that by sharing a personal story about Martin Luther King, which involves a small connection I have to him and his family.
My family lived in Atlanta from 1967-1969, and I attended pre-school and kindergarten there. My parents, my mother in particular, 是一群黑人和白人家庭的一员，他们在亚特兰大建立了第一所综合幼儿园. From there, children moved into one of the city’s first integrated public elementary school kindergartens. Many civil rights pioneers were part of this group, including the Kings. Of course, as a child, I had no idea how significant the King family was, and I certainly had no idea that we were making history by integrating schools in Atlanta.
A few weeks ago, I was discussing this talk with my mom. 当她回忆起那段时光时，她非常兴奋，并建议我与大家分享.
“I am sure you remember Dr. King’s funeral. 送葬队伍经过时，你和幼儿园的孩子们手拉手沿着阿什比大街列队. Then you walked together with the parents and the teachers toward the church. It was such a beautiful and powerful moment, even in the midst of such sadness. Don’t you recall?”
I really was moved by mother’s story, and as she retrieved the memory and remembered the events of that day, I could tell it was a very emotional experience for her. I really wanted to share that memory and to be in that moment with her. There was one problem. I was four years old at the time and, honestly—I really don’t remember. I really wanted to remember, and perhaps I can call up some flashes of memory here and there. 但她回忆起的所有美好画面——黑人小男孩和女孩与白人小男孩和女孩手牵着手，就像《太阳城网赌平台》里那样. King’s dream. Honestly, no, I don’t remember. But I was there.
Well, the fact that my mother’s memories of that time are so vivid, and that she was able to share them with me, that certainly is important and I am glad to be able to share them with you. 所有在亚特兰大创办这些综合学校的家长们的远见和奉献精神，都受到了马丁·路德·金博士的启发. King is testament to the power of what he achieved as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Because of the efforts and sacrifices of those mothers and fathers, those grandmothers and grandfathers, my siblings and I—all of us born in the 1960s—have no memory of legal segregation. We never attended segregated schools, and we have been the beneficiaries of some remarkable racial progress. 今天，黑人以1968年难以想象和令人震惊的方式出现在美国主流生活中. After all, although it seems a very long time ago, we just had an African-American president who served two terms. My parents and their friends were expecting and working for a lot of change in 1968, but honestly, at that time, 我不认为他们中的许多人会认真考虑在他们的一生中选出一位黑人总统. Things do change.
“你们都代表着一种对更美好未来的信念，这种信念驱使许多人挑战他们那个时代的社会习俗和政治. They took risks and made sacrifices because they knew this country was headed in the wrong direction. They didn’t wait for the leaders at the top to make things right. They wanted a better world for their children, so they got to work in their own communities to work for change and to demand justice. ”
But—and this is a big but—the story around change is complicated. The United States is still in many ways a prisoner to its racist history, a history that has not been adequately acknowledged and confronted, and which continues to compromise the full membership and participation of blacks in American society. There is a long, depressing litany of examples: police shootings of unarmed black men, the school to prison pipeline, and the ongoing wealth gap between black and white households, just to name just a few things. We all know that there are many more. Fifty years after his death Martin Luther King would see much progress, it is true, but he also would see a nation still being torn apart by racial animosity, 更糟糕的是，在一个公众不文明和政治堕落的时代，我相信他会觉得难以理解.
As the pre-eminent leader of the Civil Rights Movement, King saw all of the American people as his audience, and in his public remarks and actions, he worked to appeal to their higher values, such as their belief in equality and their respect for human dignity. For King, these values drew on America’s diverse religious traditions and, more broadly, 美国人对我国建国文件中阐明的民主核心原则的尊重. Little girls dying in a church bombing in Birmingham, or peaceful demonstrators being attacked in Selma, shocked and disturbed most Americans, 这使得马丁·路德·金围绕民权运动的内在正义建立了全国性的道德共识, ultimately, to encourage Congress to produce groundbreaking legislation that sought to end racial discrimination.
这就是为什么今晚庆祝这些MKL奖学金入围者的成就让我如此高兴. 你们都代表着一种对更美好未来的信念，这种信念驱使许多人挑战他们那个时代的社会习俗和政治. They took risks and made sacrifices because they knew this country was headed in the wrong direction. They didn’t wait for the leaders at the top to make things right. They wanted a better world for their children, so they got to work in their own communities to work for change and to demand justice.
看看我们目前的政治环境，不可能不再次关注我们国家的前进方向, and we cannot ignore some very deep divisions that remain in the American social fabric. Race is one of them, and its salience in cannot be underestimated. 但我们现在看到，在我们政府的最高层，我们一些最基本的公民价值观正在崩溃, along with a shocking coarsening of public discourse, 我们公民中的犬儒主义有可能摧毁我们民主制度的基础.
Despite the deepening divisions, both sides agree that for many, a loss of hope in the future lies at the heart of America’s social crisis. Increasing numbers of people find that a decent education is out of reach; wages have been stagnant for most people for decades; the working class has been devastated, and the middle class has shrunk. 我们的政治和经济制度未能满足对社会正义作出更深刻承诺的需要, which was the focus of King’s thinking and activism in the final years of his life, has now become urgent and obvious. Social justice, and its intricate relationship to racial justice, is the aspect of Dr. 金的遗产是这些学生在校园内和社区所做工作的核心. Despite the progress that has been made — real progress, that has benefitted many of us here tonight—these young people know that more needs to be done, and that this is no time to be complacent.
“Like the students that we honor tonight, 让我们不要忘记那些继续斗争的人，这个社会对他们更无情，更不仁慈. Let those of us who have a voice, use it to support the voiceless, to call out hate and vulgarity of our current political moment, and to remind ourselves of what our democratic ideals truly call us to be as a nation.”
A rich understanding of justice, one that looks beyond the individual to consider the needs of the weak and the marginalized, the stability of communities, the distribution of resources, and the fairness of the structures of society, is at the heart of the teachings of most faith traditions, and it is an integral part of Catholic social teaching. 这些对正义更丰富的理解长期存在于与美国文化和美国市场资本主义模式的某些方面的持续紧张关系中, which is highly individualistic and rewards a ‘winner-take-all’ mentality.
作为种族正义和社会正义的先驱，马丁·路德·金在他生命的最后时刻看到的是，美国资本主义是多么依赖于维持大量被边缘化和被排斥的人的存在，这些人在社会秩序中的目的是让相对较小的上层群体富裕起来，并赋予他们权力. This certainly was an essential part of the explanation for slavery in the United States, which has produced so much bitter fruit for race relations in American society today. But it also explains, at least to some degree, indentured servitude, sharecropping, the mistreatment of immigrants, and most recently, the indifference many have to the human rights of refugees and undocumented migrants.
The students we celebrate tonight embody Dr. King’s dream of a society in which men and women are judged by the content of their character. 这些青年男女的杰出品格不仅体现在他们在学业上的努力学习上, but also by their devotion to the needs of others, and their passion for service that seeks justice and fairness for all people. In particular, 他们没有忘记这个国家黑人和非裔美国人的持续需求，并利用他们的才能继续为这些社区服务. They honor both Dr. 金的遗产和耶稣会的学术卓越和服务传统，使我们大学的教育事业充满活力. We celebrate not only what they have accomplished, but also the wonderful impact we know they will have on this world as they move beyond Boston College.
Marin Luther King was a visionary leader who led this nation out of the worst aspects of its racism. 他是一位治愈者，他把来自不同背景和各行各业的人们聚集在一起，推动国家朝着更好的愿景前进，为孩子们创造更美好的未来. He also was a man of faith. 一位基督教神学家，他认为所有的男人和女人都有上帝赋予他们的尊严，赋予他们任何人或政府都不能剥夺的权利. Finally, he was, at the end of his life, a critic of certain aspects of American capitalism. Not because he was a communist or a socialist, 而是因为他是一名基督徒，他认为，如果男人和女人被视为充实他人的手段，他们的尊严就无法维持. Like the students that we honor tonight, 让我们不要忘记那些继续斗争的人，这个社会对他们更无情，更不仁慈. Let those of us who have a voice, use it to support the voiceless, to call out hate and vulgarity of our current political moment, and to remind ourselves of what our democratic ideals truly call us to be as a nation.
In what was probably his most controversial speech, Beyond Vietnam, delivered at Riverside Church in New York City in April, 1967, King exhorted those attending with these words:
"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Over fifty years later those words resonate in ways no one could have imagined in 1967. 我相信，今晚我们庆祝的这些年轻人将继续努力，推动这个国家走向重要的事情，远离无关紧要的事情. Then, and only then, will we fully realize the dream Martin Luther King had for all of us.
Congratulations once again to all of our Martin Luther King scholarship finalists. It truly has been my honor to be your keynote speaker tonight, and I look forward to following all your accomplishments in the years ahead.
February 19, 2019