Teach2Serve's 5K for Gun Safety
How to make sense of all this? 和...do I really believe that humanity is progressing?
让我们从我的观点开始:人类的进步是一条永远向上的弧线. I believe this, with a rather large asterisk. 星号是这个...If you imagine human progress as a line on a graph, Y轴是我们如何衡量进步的复杂定义, X轴代表人类历史从最开始到现在的发展, I do believe that our progress as a species is arching upward, but not without some undulations.
This past weekend was a significant undulation for me. 11人在匹兹堡丧生，这起大规模杀戮正在作为仇恨犯罪进行调查. The driving force behind that hate: the 宗教 the victims practiced. 在一个神圣的地方, 暴力入侵——一种极端的暴力，只要想想就会让人痛苦地畏缩. Yet, these events aren’t new or different. 事实上, it’s the 297th mass shooting of 2018, the number almost equal to the number of days in 2018 according to 商业内幕. 作为校长, 我每天都在考虑安全问题，每当我的手机亮起针对一群人的新的枪支暴力行为警报时——无论是在学校里——我都会不寒而栗, a place of worship or a shopping mall. 我感到沮丧，在这些时刻，我的理论图上的线下降了.
然而,.
The next day and some 330 miles to the east of Pittsburgh, 索利伯里的一些学生聚集在一起，为他们几个月来一直在做的一个项目达到高潮:一场5K跑/走，让他们对枪支安全的必要性有了一个清晰的认识. The context for this months-long effort: our students wanted to respond, from their small corner of the world, to the school shooting in Parkland, 今年早些时候在佛罗里达州. 他们邀请了枪支拥有者, 枪支安全倡导者和政府官员聚集在一起，提高对枪支安全主题的认识，促进围绕防止枪支暴力进行健康的对话. 大约100人就当天感到特别重要的一个问题进行了有益的活动和有益的对话, 我们的学生筹集了重要的资金，这些资金将捐赠给致力于枪支安全工作的组织. In the grand scheme of things, it’s small. 但功能强大. The line on the Y axis trends upward.
我们如何在人类进步的背景下理解这两件事?
For me, the answers are both complicated and nuanced. It begins with an acknowledgement that humans are flawed. 我们是不完美的生物，这些不完美永远是我们物种的一部分. Hatred and 偏执 will continue as long as we exist. 但 we can see over the long history of our species, that ever so gradually the critical mass of humans who are educated, 宽容, and accepting has increased. 永无止境的目标是:继续工作，引导越来越多的人进入这个宽容的帐篷. The critical tool in this effort: education.
我坚信，我们所能指出的人类的任何进步都是教育的结果, 最特别的是, 广义的教育. 微积分或美国历史的内容并不是人类进步的特殊引擎(向我的数学和社会科学同事道歉), 而是在一个专注于角色发展的社区中传递这些内容, 社区建设, honing an ethical or moral compass, instilling and nurturing the values of tolerance and inclusivity. This is the educational environment we must all work to create and sustain. I believe we can gradually realize a world where hatred, 偏执, and intolerance can be blunted and marginalized. Will there be more episodes like the one that unfolded in Pittsburgh. 不幸的是,是的. 是否还会有更多像我们的五公里长跑这样的活动，让困扰我们的问题得到更大的关注? 绝对. We need to maximize the latter in order to diminish the former.
Thus, as we look to the future, I remain cautiously optimistic. 在这一刻, I am reminded of two quotes, 当我们思考我们在这个善与恶继续斗争的世界上的角色时，每一颗星都为我们提供了一颗北极星. 这句话出自18世纪的政治理论家和哲学家埃德蒙·伯克:“邪恶胜利的唯一必要条件是好人什么都不做。.”
但, 也许此时此刻最恰当的话来自《韦德娱乐app下载地址》:“不要被世界的巨大悲痛所吓倒. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. 你没有义务一定要完成这项工作，但你也没有放弃它的自由."
Far from abandoning the work, we must continue on. 更努力的工作. 恨少. 多带着爱倾听. 尽量减少波动，继续人类进步的上升轨迹. 我承诺. 我希望你也一样.