Repression Today, as I was relaxing at the beach, I couldn't help buteavesdrop(窃听,偷听)on a conversation four high school kids we having on the beach blanket next to me. Their conversation was about making a positive difference in the world. And it went something like this… "It's impossible to make a difference unless you're a huge corporation or someone with lots of money and power," one of them said. "Yeah man," another replied. "My mom keeps telling me to move mountains – to speak up and stand up for what I believe. But what I say and do doesn't even get noticed. I just keep answering to ‘the man’ and then I getslapped back(山谷回声)in place by him when I step out of line." "Repression…" another snickered. I smiled because I knew exactly how they felt. When I was their age, I was certain I was being repressed and couldn't possibly make a difference in this world. And I actually almost gotexpelled from(驱逐,开除)school once because I openly expressed how repressed I felt in the middle of the principals’ office. I Have A Dream Suddenly, one of the kids noticed me eavesdropping and smiling. He sat up, looked at me and said, "What? Do you disagree?" Then as he waited for a response, the other three kids turned around too. Rather than arguing with them, I took an oldreceipt(收据)out of my wallet,ripped(撕,扯)it into four pieces, and wrote a different word on each piece. Then I crumbled the pieces into little paper balls and handed a different piece to each one of them. |