Thank you all for being here. Some of us are here because we are energized. Some of us are here because we are angry. Some of us are here just because we found something even more exhilarating to do on a Saturday morning than re-running our PCR. Some of us are here because this, all this, does not compute. But all of us are here together today because we love this powerful and beautiful thing we call science.
Let me share a story with you about how science changed millions of lives a world away from Boston. My grandfather was an engineer. Fifty years ago, he built the public water system in Damascus, Syria, and equipped it with a fully computerized control system—what, as you can imagine, was then a novelty in a developing country. He ensured that the most life-giving resource was reliably available to all people in the city. Although the system he built now lies in ruins due to the civil war, which has left thousands without water, his legacy persists in the memory of those who once saw their city flourish. And that legacy will be resurrected by the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Fifty years later and 5,000 miles away, I am lucky to be in the presence of truly incredible scientists. These people, doing their miraculous work, make me believe in a brighter future, no matter what the current circumstances are in the U.S. and abroad.
On our floor at Massachusetts General Hospital, there are researchers working to restore sight to the blind, mobility to the paralyzed and consciousness to the comatose. I learn from mentors who have wrestled with the hard questions in science for decades and never flagged in their commitment. I meet younger scientists questioning our axioms, challenging me to change my thinking and pushing us all forward. I have met even younger scientists at the Boston Children’s Museum coming up with brilliant ideas for solving the world’s toughest problems. The future will be bright in the hands of our young scientists.
But we must show our young scientists that this future we dream of will not come for free. This future we dream of, a future in which clean drinking water streams to every family on earth, a future in which no child will suffer the agony of incurable disease, a future in which the universal language of science unites us across borders and oceans, that future seems to be getting further away from us, doesn’t it? But we will never stop striving to build that future and, now, to fight for that future.
So let us tell these leaders we find at the helm of our nation who we are, and what we stand for. We will not blindly do the bidding of a power without regard to truth, fairness, and human rights. We will never abandon our quest for knowledge in the service of our patients. We know whom we serve. It is not the politicians, or the pharmaceutical companies or even the NIH, but the people of this country and the people of this earth. As scientists, we will do right by this earth and right by our people.
We are the heirs of Socrates, who died at the altar of truth. We are the heirs of the Dutch doctors who refused to practice eugenics under Nazi occupation, who hid an entire floor of a hospital in Heerlen to treat Jewish patients and resistance fighters, who went on strike with their brothers, the tram drivers and the longshoremen, and lost their livelihoods, and, some of them, their lives. We are the heirs of German college students Hans and Sophie Scholl, siblings who spoke out at their university against Nazi propaganda, organized nonviolent resistance through their White Rose Society, then paid the ultimate price for their moral stand.
So let us honor the legacy of our predecessors by fighting for a future for our children. Every single day, let us, each and every one of us, do one thing to hasten a bright future, against all odds. Though it might be inertial to keep our heads down at the lab bench, let us raise our voices and speak the truth. We are blessed with knowledge, and it is our responsibility to share it, and to act on it.
We will not be silent. We will stand up. We will stand up for health. We will stand up for peace. We will stand up for justice and equality. We will stand up for our beautiful planet. And above all, we will always stand up for truth.
Adapted from a speech delivered by HMS student Senan Ebrahim at the HMS March for Science rally on April 22, 2017.
