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One Thursday morning, several summers ago,
几年前的一个夏天，一个星期四的早上，
I woke up and started scrolling through social media like so many of us do every morning.
我醒来，像许多人每天早上一样开始浏览社交媒体。
What caught my eye that morning, though, was an article about how 100,000 people in Detroit were about to have to live
然而，那天早上吸引我眼球的是一篇文章，内容是关于底特律10万人将不得不
without running water because they couldn't afford their water bills.
在没有自来水的情况下生活，因为他们付不起水费。
And people have been living with this issue for a while.
这个问题已经伴随当地人一段时间了。
And they get by.
他们勉强度日。
They were doing everything from collecting rainwater in barrels to walking to relative's houses to take showers every few days.
从用桶收集雨水到每隔几天步行到亲戚家洗澡，他们什么都做。
And much worse, sometime later, I learned that a lot of people were actually losing custody of their kids because they couldn't afford to pay their water bills.
更糟的是，过了一段时间，我了解到很多人已经失去了孩子的监护权，因为他们付不起水费。
Instead of someone helping them, they just lost their kids.
没有人帮助他们，他们失去了自己的孩子。
For many of them, their greatest transgression, you could argue,
对他们中的许多人来说，他们最大的过错，
was that they were either elderly, disabled, had just been laid off or worked jobs that simply didn't pay enough.
要么是年老、残疾、刚被解雇，要么就是工作报酬太低。
And yes, I said jobs.
是的，我说的是工作。
And to me, how they were being treated and the level of contempt shown to them
对我来说，他们所受到的对待，被蔑视的程度，
and how easy it was to simply deny them something that we all need to live was disgusting.
以及轻易拒绝给予他们生活所必需的东西，都令人作呕。
It's disgusting.
令人反感。
But to me this also felt personal, even though I have no direct family ties to Detroit.
但对我来说，这也有个人的感觉，尽管我与底特律没有直接的家庭联系。
And here's why.
原因如下。
Many of the people who were facing shut offs were Black.
许多面临解雇的人是黑人。
Many were also like myself, Black women.
许多人也像我一样，是黑人女性。
And Lord knows it's not the first time in the United States that Black people have been denied basic human rights like water.
天知道，这不是美国黑人第一次被剥夺基本的人权，比如水。
So to me, that created an overwhelming urge to do something to help.
所以对我来说，我迫切想要做点什么来帮助别人。
I mean, I couldn't just read that and then go on about my day.
我是说，我不能只是看看就继续我的生活。
Then it became a question of what can I,
接下来的问题是，作为一个坐在家里，
sitting in my pajamas as one person at home, actually do?
穿着睡衣的人，我究竟能做些什么?
Well, what? Oh, oh, but wait.
什么? 哦，等等。
I'm a programmer.
我是程序员。
And a heavy, heavy social media user.
还是个社交媒体的重度用户。
So I decided to tweet.
所以我决定发推特。
To tweet what I was reading about, what I was seeing, how I felt,
把我读到的东西、看到的东西、感受的东西发给我的在线社区，
to my online community of activists, politicians, start-up founders and investors.
那里有活动家、政治家、初创企业创始人和投资者。
Some like yourselves.
有些像你们。
And other programmers, of course.
当然，还有其他程序员。
And over the course of a few hours of back and forth about what to do,
经过几个小时的反复讨论，
we resolved to do the simplest, most obvious thing that would help somebody in this situation.
我们决定做最简单，最直接的事情来帮助处于这种情况下的人。
