For all of you who are taking part in the protests, I admire
your fortitude and resilience. I am proud of the creativity and thoughtfulness
you are investing in expressing your message. As I tried to tell you so often:
you are a remarkable generation, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Regardless of your political leanings, NO ONE has the right
to confine you, to impose their definitions on you, or to label you. You are right
to shake off the shackles of retrograde thinking, to bring new meaning to old
definitions, and to leave the labels in tatters by the wayside.
You have the right to question all authority, no matter the
status of the person trying to dictate what the “truth” (or the “Truth”) is to
you. We should all be striving to believe as many true things as possible, to
not believe any false things presented us. We can only depend on evidence to
lead us to those true things.
Through your actions you have shown that the future is
yours: the search for truth, the renouncing of violence and demand for dialogue
(and answers) as a way to find it. Our most endearing quality as a species is
perhaps our ability to use language and symbolic thinking to communicate and
achieve our goals. You are now showing your mastery.
My students have become my teachers!
