I belong to a nation which over the past centuries has experienced many hardships and reverses. The world reacted with silence or with mere sympathy when Polish frontiers were crossed by invading armies and the sovereign state had to succumb to brutal force.

For whatever reason I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.

May we not succumb to thoughts of violence and revenge today but rather to thoughts of mercy and compassion. We are to love our enemies that they might be returned to their right minds.

Vulgarity begins when imagination succumbs to the explicit.