Groton Graduates "Go Well," Prepared to Make a Difference

尊敬的玛格丽特·马歇尔的话, Groton’s keynote 奖的一天 speaker and former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, carried unique gravitas and conviction because they followed a powerful retelling of her own personal story of courage.

After a childhood in South Africa that she described as “secure, 舒适的, 稳定的, 没有任何威胁或恐惧的迹象,她敏锐地意识到种族隔离制度的不公正. 

“It made no difference under apartheid that Temba was the grandson of a most distinguished South African scholar and educator, or Vuyelwa the daughter of an important South African author,”她说。, 指的是易胜博app安卓下载校长和他的妻子. “在种族隔离的眼中, 他们的种族, 他们的黑暗, 把他们完全定义为低等人类.”

 

作为一名白人大学生, 马歇尔可能忽略了令她震惊的事情, but instead she spoke out against apartheid and eventually “came to fear a knock on the door in the middle of the night . . . 要知道，如果政府逮捕或禁止我, 就像它有很多其他的学生领袖一样, 没有法庭能够也不会保护我.”

 

With government power growing, she sometimes wondered if student protests were futile. Then a group at the University of Cape Town invited Senator Robert F. 肯尼迪(1968年被暗杀)访问. 他不是随便哪一天都来大学的, but on the day the government was shutting blacks out of attending university.

 

The young man who extended the invitation to RFK was “banned”—essentially put on house arrest. 马歇尔, 对他来说，做正确的事胜过恐惧, stepped into the student leader’s position and traveled with Kennedy. 马歇尔’s 奖的一天 address came a day before the fiftieth anniversary of Kennedy’s speech at the University of Cape Town.

 

马歇尔说，肯尼迪的演讲激励了她, 并继续, particularly his message about the impact of individual gestures. She says she has never forgotten this quote from that day: 

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. 每一次，一个人都为一个理想挺身而出, 或采取行动来改善他人的命运, 或者反对不公正, 他发出一丝希望的涟漪, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

马歇尔 also told of speaking at the funeral of Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Lutuli, who headed the African National Congress in South Africa. “The feared security police were everywhere, listening and watching and recording,” she recalled. “我承认，我很害怕. . . . 我知道演讲者可能会被逮捕. One, a student I knew well, Stephen Biko, was later tortured to death in a prison cell. 

"At Lutuli’s funeral, I came face-to-face with true courage. And I unders太d with searing clarity the harvest of bitterness reaped by a government that denies its people equality and justice.”

Listeners may have found it unfathomable when the speaker referred to herself as “a nobody,” but they unders太d clearly her point that anyone who stands up for ideals and justice can have enormous influence.

 

Preceding 马歇尔's keynote address were words of welcome and messages of tolerance and inclusion from Headmaster Maqubela and 校董会 President Jonathan Klein. Mr. Klein urged the graduates to mine the inexhaustible supply of a precious natural resource—gratitude—then went on to speak of tolerance, 理解, and the notion—inspired by Boston Assistant District Attorney Adam Foss and reinforced by Mr. Maqubela’s belief in restorative justice—that no one should be defined by their mistakes or lapses. 

Mr. Maqubela specifically described students who are carrying on the message of inclusion, including one who asked that American 历史 be renamed U.S. 历史(因为“美国”比美国更重要).S.) and a young alumnus who is trumpeting the ideal of inclusion on his college campus.

 

当天的另一个亮点是扎欣·达斯的16岁生日, who was chosen by his peers to be the student 奖的一天 speaker. 风趣的演讲和恰到好处的喜剧时机, Zahin chronicled his life growing up on campus—his parents are teachers Nishad Das and Sravani Sen-Das. 

Listeners heard of the dormitory fish named J’uhwah Shanaynay (don’t ask), which had its own Twitter account and used the hashtag #bubbles. Alas, that story ended with a paper-bag coffin and final rites in the Nashua River. 有垒球比赛, 太, where a teammate purposely rounded the bases in the wrong direction.

 

After the humorous tales came a serious message about the care that has surrounded Zahin at Groton. “当我还是个蹒跚学步的孩子, 易胜博app安卓下载的一个物理老师给了我一个小小的, 蓝色长椅上画着我的名字和黄色的星星. 当我还是个中学生的时候, practicing in the squash courts and silently idolizing the Groton squash team, that same teacher stopped in regularly to watch me and help with my game. 

"When I was a senior in one of my last matches on that Groton team, at the height of physical exhaustion and on the brink of defeat, his hand was on my shoulder to guide me and spur me back into the fight. I can speak confidently for the Form of 2016 when I say that we have all had those figures.”

 

Zahin concluded with a message of friendship and gratitude: “As I look back, I don’t ask myself what I’ve done or accomplished here; I ask, “我关心谁呢??说到底，这才是最重要的.”

 

When 奖的一天 ended, graduates left the tent on the Circle buoyed by the messages of each speaker. 当奥. Maqubela, per Groton tradition, shouted “Go well," off they went, inspired to make a difference.

见颁奖日照片.

迈克·斯珀林摄