She wrote: "When I become famous, I will tell everyone that I know a hero named Marlon Peterson."
她写道：“当我成名后，我将四处宣传，我认识一位名叫马龙·彼得森的英雄。”
Heroes rarely look like me. In fact, I'm what garbage looks like.
我一点也不像英雄。事实上，我比较像垃圾。
No, not the most appealing way to open a talk or start a conversation,
这种说法不适合演讲开场，或是用来开启对话，
and perhaps you have some questions going through your head about that.
你们脑海中可能也有些疑问。
Why would this man say such a thing about himself? What does he mean?
这个人为何会这样描述自己？他到底想说甚么？
How can someone view him as a hero when he sees himself as garbage?
一个被视为英雄的人物，为何自称垃圾？
I believe we learn more from questions than we do from answers.
我相信从问题学到的东西，比从答案来得多。
Because when we're questioning something, we're invested in taking in some sort of new information,
因为当我们提出质疑时，我们会成长，吸收更多新信息，
or grappling with some sort of ignorance that makes us feel uncomfortable.
或者跟让我们难受的无知奋战。
And that's why I'm here: to push us to question, even when it makes us uncomfortable.
这也是我站在这里的原因，鼓励大家提出疑虑，就算因此感到不愉快。
My parents are from Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost island in the Caribbean.
我的双亲来自特立尼达共和国，一个位于加勒比海最南端的岛国。
Trinidad is also home to the only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century: the steel pan.
特立尼达也是钢鼓的发源地，钢鼓是唯一发明于20世纪的乐器。
Deriving from the African drums and evolving from the genius of one of the ghettos in Trinidad, a city called Laventille,
发源自非洲鼓，住在特立尼达拉芬蒂市的贫穷居民，将它改良，
and the disregard of the American military.
加上美国军队的轻忽。
Well, I should tell you, America, during WWII, had military bases set up in Trinidad,
这样说吧，美国于二战期间在特立尼达驻兵，
and when the war ended, they left the island littered with empty oil drums -- their trash.
战争结束后，空燃料油桶被随意弃置岛上，也就是美军的垃圾。
So people from Laventille repurposed the old drums left behind into the full chromatic scale: the steel pan.
拉芬蒂市的居民把旧油桶重新再造，变成具有完整半音音阶的钢鼓。
Playing music now from Beethoven to Bob Marley to 50 Cent, those people literally made music out of garbage.
从贝多芬、雷鬼音乐演奏到饶舌歌曲，当地居民基本上用垃圾玩出音乐。
Twelve days before my 20th birthday, I was arrested for my role in a violent robbery attempt in lower Manhattan.
在我20岁生日的12天前，我因为涉嫌暴力抢劫，在下曼哈顿区遭到逮捕。
While people were sitting in a coffee shop, four people were shot. Two were killed.
当时人们坐在咖啡店内，有四个人中枪，其中两个死亡。
Five of us were arrested. We were all the products of Trinidad and Tobago.
我和同伙共五人被捕。我们正是特立尼达共和国的产物。
We were the "bad immigrants," or the "anchor babies" that Trump and millions of Americans easily malign.
人们口中的不良移民，或是让特朗普和上百万美国人任意中伤的“定锚婴儿”。
I was discarded, like waste material -- and justifiably so to many.
我就像废物般被丢弃，对很多人而言，听起来很合理。
I eventually served 10 years, two months and seven days of a prison sentence.
之后我坐了10年2个月又7天的牢。
I was sentenced to a decade of punishment in a correctional institution.
我被判入监接受10年的牢狱惩罚，
I was sentenced to irrelevance -- the opposite of humanity.
我也因此被判定为无足轻重的废物，没有生为人的价值。
Interestingly, it was during those years in prison that a series of letters redeemed me,
有趣的是，在狱中的这几年里，不断收到的信件救赎了我，
helped me move beyond the darkness and the guilt associated with the worst moment of my young life.
帮助我从黑暗中与罪恶感里走出来，摆脱我年少无知时如影随形的暗黑面。
It gave me a sense that I was useful. She was 13 years old.
这些信件，让我觉得自己并非一无是处。这是个13岁的小女孩。
She had wrote that she saw me as a hero.
她信里提到，她视我为英雄。
I remember reading that, and I remember crying when I read those words.
我还记得阅读这封信，看到那句话时，我潸然泪下。
She was one of over 50 students and 150 letters that I wrote during a mentoring correspondence program
她是通信师友计划期间的50多名学生之一，在那期间我书写了150封信，
that I co-designed with a friend who was a teacher at a middle school in Brooklyn, my hometown.
那是我和朋友共同发起的计划，这位朋友是布鲁克林区的中学老师，我的故乡。
We called it the Young Scholars Program.
我们称此计划为“年轻学者计划。”
Every time those young people shared their stories with me, their struggles,
每当这群年轻朋友分享他们的故事，分享他们的挣扎，
every time they drew a picture of their favorite cartoon character and sent it to me,
每当他们画上最爱的卡通人物，然后寄来给我，
every time they said they depended on my letters or my words of advice, it boosted my sense of worthiness.
每当他们说，我信中的只字词组令人获益良多，这都大大提升我存在的价值感。
It gave me a sense of what I could contribute to this planet. It transformed my life.
他们让我觉得，我对这个地球还有贡献，也因此改变我的人生。

Because of those letters and what they shared with me, their stories of teen life, they gave me the permission,
因为他们的信件与分享，他们的青春故事，这群年轻人给我认同，
they gave me the courage to admit to myself that there were reasons -- not excuses
也给了我勇气自我坦承，一切事出有因，这不是借口，
but that there were reasons for that fateful day in October of 1999;
1999年10月那天会出事，是有因可循，
that the trauma associated with living in a community where guns are easier to get than sneakers;
一个拥有集体创伤的小区，在小区里，枪枝的取得比球鞋来得容易，
that the trauma associated with being raped at gunpoint at the age of 14;
14岁在枪口胁持下遭到性侵的创伤，
that those are reasons for me why making that decision, that fatal decision, was not an unlikely proposition.
这些原因让我觉得，当时会做出那样的决定，做出致命的决定，并不是没有可能的。
Because those letters mattered so much to me,
因为那些信对我意义重大，
because writing and receiving and having that communication with those folks so hugely impacted my life,
因为写信、收信，因为与那群年轻人沟通，对我的人生影响深远，
I decided to share the opportunity with some friends of mine who were also inside with me.
我决定将机会分享给我的朋友，我总是惦记着他们。
My friends Bill and Cory and Arocks, all in prison for violent crimes also,
我的朋友比尔、柯瑞和阿罗克斯，也因暴力犯罪入狱，
shared their words of wisdom with the young people as well, and received the sense of relevancy in return.
他们曾透过书信，与年轻朋友分享他们的智慧，也从回信里重拾自我价值感。
We are now published writers and youth program innovators and trauma experts and gun violence prevention advocates,
我们现在是作家、青少年计划创始人、创伤专家、枪枝暴力防治倡导人，
and TED talkers and -- and good daddies. That's what I call a positive return of investment.
也是TED的讲者，也是好爸爸。我们就是正向投资报酬的最佳范例。
Above all else, what building that program taught me was that when we sow,
更重要的是，我从创建这些计划中学到，当我们播种时，
when we invest in the humanity of people no matter where they're at, we can reap amazing rewards.
当我们不分良莠、用心灌溉培育人性的价值，就会满载而归。
In this latest era of criminal justice reform, I often question and wonder why
处在犯罪司法改革的新年代，我常想说为什么，
why is it that so many believe that only those who have been convicted of nonviolent drug offenses merit empathy and recognized humanity?
为什么这么多人相信，只有那些被定罪于非暴力贩毒者，才有资格受到同情、不被放弃？
Criminal justice reform is human justice. Am I not human?
犯罪司法改革就是人性正义，难道我不是人吗？
When we invest in resources that amplify the relevancy of people in communities like Laventille or parts of Brooklyn or a ghetto near you,
当我们在小区注入资源，以彰显人相依相存的价值，像是拉芬蒂市或是布鲁克林某些区域，或你家附近的贫民区，
we can literally create the communities that we want. We can do better.
我们基本上能创造愿景中的小区。我们可以做得更好。
We can do better than investing solely in law enforcement as a resource,
我们能做的，不单只是提升法律执行力，
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.
因为这方式，无法凸显人性相互扶持的价值，这也是造成这么多人为了追求认同而犯罪的主要原因。
See, gun violence is just a visible display of a lot of underlying traumas.
枪枝暴力，不过就是许多潜藏创伤的明显表征。
When we invest in the redemptive value of relevancy, we can render a return of both personal responsibility and healing.
当我们着眼人性互相依存的救赎价值，就能相对获得责任感与疗愈的回报。
That's the people work I care about, because people work.
我在乎的是人，只有这样才会起效果。
Family, I'm asking you to do the hard work, the difficult work,
请各位也一起参与这项困难的任务、并不简单的任务，
the churning work of bestowing undeserved kindness upon those who we can relegate as garbage,
需耗费心神的任务，把大家原本吝于付出的关爱，给予被我们归类为垃圾的边缘人，
who we can disregard and discard easily. I'm asking myself.
那群被我们轻易忽视和放弃的人们。我在询问我自己。
Over the past two months, I've lost two friends to gun violence, both innocent bystanders.
在过去两个月，我两个朋友丧命于枪枝犯罪，他们都只是无辜的过路人。
One was caught in a drive-by while walking home.
一个在回家的路上，被路过的车开枪击中。
The other was sitting in a café while eating breakfast, while on vacation in Miami.
另一个则是坐在咖啡店内享用早餐，他当时正在迈阿密度假。
I'm asking myself to see the redemptive value of relevancy in the people that murdered them,
我要求自己在谋杀我朋友的人们身上，看到人相依相存的救赎价值，
because of the hard work of seeing the value in me.
因为大家曾费劲在我身上看到过。
I'm pushing us to challenge our own capacity to fully experience our humanity,
我呼吁大家挑战自己的极限，来完全体验人性，
by understanding the full biography of people who we can easily choose not to see,
透过理解他们完整的人生故事，那些被我们不愿重视人们的故事，
because heroes are waiting to be recognized, and music is waiting to be made. Thank you.
因为英雄等待着伯乐的出现，而音乐等待被创作问世。谢谢各位。