American Rhetoric: Barack Obama - Knox College Commencement Address | barackobamaknoxcollege

delivered 4 June 2005, Galesburg, Illinois

2005 年 6 月 4 日交付，伊利诺伊州盖尔斯堡

[ AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.]

[真实性认证：以下文本版本直接从音频转录。]

Good morning President Taylor, Board of Trustees, faculty, parents, family, friends, the community of Galesburg, the class of 1955 -- which I understand was out partying last night, and yet still showed up here on time -- and most of all, the Class of 2005.

早上好，泰勒校长，董事会，全体教员，家长，家人，朋友，盖尔斯堡社区，1955 届毕业生——我知道他们昨晚出去参加派对，但仍然准时出现在这里——最重要的是 2005 届毕业生。

Congratulations on your graduation, and thank you -- thank you for the honor of allowing me to be a part of it.

祝贺你毕业，谢谢你——感谢你有幸让我成为其中的一员。

Thank you also, Mr. President, for this honorary degree.

总统先生，也感谢您授予这一荣誉学位。

It was only a couple of years ago that I stopped paying my student loans in law school.

就在几年前，我才停止支付法学院的学生贷款。

Had I known it was this easy, I would have ran [sic] for the United States Senate earlier.

如果我知道这么容易，我就会早点竞选美国参议院议员了。

You know, it has been about six months now since you sent me to Washington as your United States Senator.

你知道，自从你派我作为你们的美国参议员来到华盛顿以来，已经过去了大约六个月。

I recognize that not all of you voted for me, so for those of you muttering under your breath "I didn�t send you anywhere," that's ok too.

我知道并不是所有人都投票给我，所以对于那些低声嘀咕“我没有派你去任何地方”的人来说，这也没关系。

Maybe we�ll hold -- What do you call it?

也许我们会举行——你怎么称呼它？

-- a little Pumphandle after the ceremony.

——仪式结束后的一点泵手柄。

Change your mind for the next time.

下次改变主意。

It has been a fascinating journey thus far.

到目前为止，这是一次令人着迷的旅程。

Each time I walk onto the Senate floor, I'm reminded of the history, for good and for ill, that has been made there.

每次我走进参议院的楼层，我都会想起那里所创造的历史，无论好坏。

But there have been a few surreal moments.

但也有一些超现实的时刻。

For example, I remember the day before I was sworn in, myself and my staff, we decided to hold a press conference in our office.

例如，我记得在我宣誓就职的前一天，我和我的工作人员决定在我们的办公室举行新闻发布会。

Now, keep in mind that I am ranked 99th in seniority.

现在，请记住，我的资历排名第 99 位。

I was proud that I wasn�t ranked dead last until I found out that it�s just because Illinois is bigger than Colorado.

我很自豪自己没有排名最后，直到我发现这只是因为伊利诺伊州比科罗拉多州大。

So I�m 99th in seniority, and all the reporters are crammed into the tiny transition office that I have, which is right next to the janitor�s closet in the basement of the Dirksen Office Building.

所以我的资历排在第 99 位，所有记者都挤在我拥有的狭小的过渡办公室里，办公室就在德克森办公楼地下室的门卫衣柜旁边。

It�s my first day in the building, I have not taken a single vote, I have not introduced one bill, had not even sat down in my desk, and this very earnest reporter raises his hand and says:

这是我到大楼的第一天，我没有投票，没有提出一项法案，甚至没有在办公桌前坐下，这位非常认真的记者举起手说：

�Senator Obama, what is your place in history?�

“奥巴马参议员，您在历史上的地位是什么？”

I did what you just did, which is laugh out loud.

我做了你刚才做的事，那就是大声笑。

I said, "place in history?" I thought he was kidding.

我说：“历史上的地位？”我以为他是在开玩笑。

At that point, I wasn�t even sure the other Senators would save a place for me at the cool kids� table.

那时，我什至不确定其他参议员是否会在“酷孩子”餐桌上为我留出一个位置。

But as I was thinking about the words to share with this class, about what�s next, about what�s possible, and what opportunities lay ahead, I actually think it�s not a bad question for you, the class of 2005, to ask yourselves: What will be your place in history?

但当我在思考要与全班同学分享的话，关于接下来会发生什么，关于可能发生的事情，以及前方有什么机会时，我实际上认为对于 2005 届的你们来说，问自己这个问题并不是一个坏问题：你们在历史上的地位是什么？

In other eras, across distant lands, this question could be answered with relative ease and certainty.

在其他时代，跨越遥远的土地，这个问题可以相对容易和确定地得到回答。

As a servant in Rome, you knew you�d spend your life forced to build somebody else�s Empire.

作为罗马的仆人，你知道你将一生被迫建立别人的帝国。

As a peasant in 11th Century China, you knew that no matter how hard you worked, the local warlord might come and take everything you had -- and you also knew that famine might come knocking at the door.

作为 11 世纪中国的农民，你知道无论你多么努力工作，当地的军阀都可能会来夺走你所拥有的一切——而且你也知道饥荒可能会来敲门。

As a subject of King George, you knew that your freedom of worship and your freedom to speak and to build your own life would be ultimately limited by the throne.

作为乔治国王的臣民，你知道你的崇拜自由、言论自由和建立自己生活的自由最终将受到王位的限制。

A place where destiny was not a destination, but a journey to be shared and shaped and remade by people who had the gall, the temerity to believe that, against all odds, they could form �a more perfect union� on this new frontier.

在这个地方，命运不是目的地，而是一段由那些有胆量、大胆地相信，克服一切困难的人们共同分享、塑造和重塑的旅程，他们可以在这个新的边疆形成“一个更完美的联盟”。

And as people around the world began to hear the tale of the lowly colonists who overthrew an empire for the sake of an idea, they started to come.

当世界各地的人们开始听到卑微的殖民者为了一个想法而推翻帝国的故事时，他们开始前来。

Across oceans and the ages, they settled in Boston and Charleston, Chicago and St. Louis, Kalamazoo and Galesburg, to try and build their own American Dream.

他们跨越重洋和岁月，定居在波士顿和查尔斯顿、芝加哥和圣路易斯、卡拉马祖和盖尔斯堡，试图建立自己的美国梦。

This collective dream moved forward imperfectly -- it was scarred by our treatment of native peoples, betrayed by slavery, clouded by the subjugation of women, shaken by war and depression.

这个集体梦想的进展并不完美——它因我们对待土著人民的方式而伤痕累累，因奴隶制而背叛，因对妇女的征服而蒙上阴影，因战争和萧条而动摇。

And yet, brick by brick, rail by rail, calloused hand by calloused hand, people kept dreaming, and building, and working, and marching, and petitioning their government, until they made America a land where the question of our place in history is not answered for us.

然而，一砖一砖、一轨接一轨、一只又一只长满老茧的手，人们不断地梦想着、建造着、工作着、游行着、向政府请愿，直到他们把美国变成了一块我们在历史上的地位问题没有得到解答的土地。

It�s answered by us.

由我们来回答。

Have we failed at times?

我们有时会失败吗？

Absolutely.

绝对地。

Will you occasionally fail when you embark on your own American journey?

当你踏上自己的美国之旅时，你会偶尔失败吗？

You surely will.

你一定会的。

But the test is not perfection.

但测试并不完美。

The true test of the American ideal is whether we�re able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time.

对美国理想的真正考验是我们是否能够认识到我们的失败，然后共同应对我们时代的挑战。

Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them.

我们是否允许自己被事件和历史塑造，或者我们是否采取行动来塑造它们。

Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life�s big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.

出生的机会或环境是否决定了人生的大赢家和输家，或者我们是否建立了一个至少让每个人都有机会努力工作、取得成功并实现梦想的社区。

At the end of the Civil War, when farmers and their families began moving into the cities to work in the big factories that were sprouting up all across America, we had to decide: Do we do nothing and allow captains of industry and robber barons to run roughshod over the economy and workers by competing to see who can pay the lowest wages at the worst working conditions?

内战结束时，当农民和他们的家人开始涌入城市，在美国各地如雨后春笋般涌现的大工厂工作时，我们必须做出决定：我们是否袖手旁观，任由工业巨头和强盗大亨通过竞争谁能在最差的工作条件下支付最低工资来粗暴对待经济和工人？

Or do we try to make the system work by setting up basic rules for the market, instituting the first public schools, busting up monopolies, letting workers organize into unions?

或者我们是否试图通过制定市场基本规则、建立第一所公立学校、打破垄断、让工人组织工会来使该体系发挥作用？

When the irrational exuberance of the Roaring Twenties came crashing down with the stock market, we had to decide: do we follow the call of leaders who would do nothing, or the call of a leader who, perhaps because of his physical paralysis, refused to accept political paralysis?

当咆哮的二十年代的非理性繁荣随着股市崩溃时，我们必须做出决定：我们是听从那些无所作为的领导人的号召，还是听从一个也许因为身体瘫痪而拒绝接受政治瘫痪的领导人的号召？

We chose to act -- regulating the market, putting people back to work, expanding bargaining rights to include health care and a secure retirement -- and together we rose.

我们选择采取行动——规范市场，让人们重返工作岗位，扩大议价权，将医疗保健和有保障的退休生活纳入其中——然后我们一起崛起。

When World War II required the most massive home front mobilization in history and we needed every single American to lend a hand, we had to decide: Do we listen to skeptics who told us it wasn�t possible to produce that many tanks and planes?

当第二次世界大战需要历史上最大规模的后方动员，我们需要每一个美国人伸出援助之手时，我们必须做出决定：我们是否听取那些告诉我们不可能生产那么多坦克和飞机的怀疑论者的意见？

Or, did we build Roosevelt�s Arsenal for Democracy and grow our economy even further by providing our returning heroes with a chance to go to college and own their own home?

或者，我们是否建立了罗斯福的民主军械库，并通过为我们回归的英雄提供上大学和拥有自己的房子的机会来进一步发展我们的经济？

Again, we chose to act, and again, we rose together.

我们再一次选择行动，再一次我们一起奋起。

Today, at the beginning of this young century, we have to decide again.

今天，在这个年轻的世纪之初，我们必须再次做出决定。

But this time, it is your turn to choose.

但这一次，轮到你选择了。

Here in Galesburg, you know what this new challenge is.

在盖尔斯堡，您知道这个新挑战是什么。

You�ve seen it.

你已经看到了。

All of you, your first year in college saw what happened at 9/11.

你们所有人，大学第一年都目睹了 9/11 发生的事情。

It�s already been noted, the degree to which your lives will be intertwined with the war on terrorism that currently is taking place.

我们已经注意到，你们的生活将在多大程度上与当前正在进行的反恐战争交织在一起。

But what you�ve also seen, perhaps not as spectacularly, is the fact that when you drive by the old Maytag plant around lunchtime, no one walks out anymore.

但你也看到了这样一个事实，也许没有那么引人注目：当你在午餐时间开车经过老梅泰克工厂时，再也没有人走了出来。

I saw it during the campaign when I met union guys who worked at the plant for 20, 30 years and now wonder what they�re gonna do at the age of 55 without a pension or health care; when I met the man who�s son needed a new liver but because he�d been laid off, didn�t know if he could afford to provide his child the care that he needed.

我在竞选期间看到了这一点，当时我遇到了在工厂工作了 20、30 年的工会成员，现在想知道他们在 55 岁没有养老金或医疗保健的情况下会做什么；当我遇到一个人时，他的儿子需要新的肝脏，但因为他被解雇了，不知道他是否有能力为孩子提供所需的护理。

It�s as if someone changed the rules in the middle of the game and no wonder -- no one bothered to tell these folks.

就好像有人在游戏中途改变了规则，这也就不足为奇了——没有人愿意告诉这些人。

And, in reality, the rules have changed.

事实上，规则已经改变。

It started with technology and automation that rendered entire occupations obsolete.

它始于技术和自动化，使整个职业都过时了。

When was the last time anybody here stood in line for the bank teller instead of going to the ATM, or talked to a switchboard operator?

这里最后一次有人排队等候银行出纳员而不是去 ATM 机，或者与总机接线员交谈是什么时候？

Then it continued when companies like Maytag were able to pick up and move their factories to some under developed country where workers were a lot cheaper than they are in the United States.

然后，当像美泰克这样的公司能够将工厂转移到一些欠发达国家时，这种情况仍在继续，那里的工人比美国便宜得多。

As Tom Friedman points out in his new book, The World Is Flat , over the last decade or so, these forces -- technology and globalization -- have combined like never before.

正如汤姆·弗里德曼在他的新书《世界是平的》中指出的那样，在过去十年左右的时间里，这些力量——技术和全球化——以前所未有的方式结合在一起。

So that while most of us have been paying attention to how much easier technology has made our own lives -- sending e-mails back and forth on our blackberries, surfing the Web on our cell phones, instant messaging with friends across the world -- a quiet revolution has been breaking down barriers and connecting the world�s economies.

因此，尽管我们大多数人都在关注科技让我们的生活变得多么轻松——用黑莓手机来回发送电子邮件、用手机上网、与世界各地的朋友进行即时通讯——但一场悄然发生的革命正在打破障碍，连接世界经济。

Now business not only has the ability to move jobs wherever there�s a factory, but wherever there�s an internet connection.

现在，企业不仅可以将工作转移到有工厂的地方，还可以转移到有互联网连接的地方。

Countries like India and China realized this.

印度和中国等国家意识到了这一点。

They understand that they no longer need to be just a source of cheap labor or cheap exports.

他们明白，他们不再需要仅仅成为廉价劳动力或廉价出口的来源。

They can compete with us on a global scale.

他们可以在全球范围内与我们竞争。

The one resource they needed were skilled, educated workers.

他们需要的一种资源是熟练的、受过教育的工人。

So they started schooling their kids earlier, longer, with a greater emphasis on math and science and technology, until their most talented students realized they don�t have to come to America to have a decent life -- they can stay right where they are.

因此，他们开始对孩子进行更早、更长时间的教育，更加重视数学、科学和技术，直到他们最有才华的学生意识到他们不必来到美国才能过上体面的生活——他们可以留在原地。

The result?

结果呢？

China is graduating four times the number of engineers that the United States is graduating.

中国毕业生的工程师数量是美国毕业生的四倍。

Not only are those Maytag employees competing with Chinese and Indian and Indonesian and Mexican workers, you are too.

不仅那些美泰克员工在与中国、印度、印度尼西亚和墨西哥工人竞争，你也在竞争。

Today, accounting firms are e-mailing your tax returns to workers in India who will figure them out and send them back to you as fast as any worker in Illinois or Indiana could.

如今，会计师事务所通过电子邮件将您的纳税申报表发送给印度的工作人员，他们会像伊利诺伊州或印第安纳州的工作人员一样尽快计算出纳税申报表并将其发回给您。

When you lose your luggage in Boston at an airport, tracking it down may involve a call to an agent in Bangalore, who will find it by making a phone call to Baltimore.

当您在波士顿的机场丢失行李时，追踪行李可能需要致电班加罗尔的代理人，后者会通过致电巴尔的摩来找到行李。

Even the Associated Press has outsourced some of their jobs to writers all over the world who can send in a story at a click of a mouse.

甚至美联社也将一些工作外包给世界各地的作家，他们只需点击鼠标即可发送故事。

As Prime Minister Tony Blair has said, in this new economy, "Talent is the 21st century wealth." If you've got the skills, you've got the education, and you have the opportunity to upgrade and improve both, you�ll be able to compete and win anywhere.

正如托尼·布莱尔首相所说，在这个新经济中，“人才是21世纪的财富”。如果您拥有技能，接受过教育，并且有机会升级和提高两者，那么您将能够在任何地方竞争并获胜。

If not, the fall will be further and harder than it ever was before.

如果不这样做，下跌将比以前更严重、更严重。

So what do we do about this?

那么我们该怎么办呢？

How does America find its way in this new, global economy?

美国如何在新的全球经济中找到自己的出路？

What will our place in history be?

我们在历史上的地位是什么？

Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice.

就像许多美国故事一样，我们再次面临选择。

Once again, there are those who believe that there isn�t much we can do about this as a nation.

再次，有些人认为我们作为一个国家对此无能为力。

That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government -- divvy it up by individual portions, in the form of tax breaks, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, their own education, and so on.

最好的想法是给每个人政府一大笔退款——以税收减免的形式将其按个人部分分配，分发出去，并鼓励每个人用自己的份额去购买自己的医疗保健、自己的退休计划、自己的儿童保育、自己的教育等等。

In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society.

在华盛顿，他们称之为所有权协会。

But in our past there has been another term for it -- Social Darwinism -- every man or woman for him or herself.

但在我们的过去，它有另一个术语——社会达尔文主义——每个男人或女人都为他或她自己。

It�s a tempting idea, because it doesn�t require much thought or ingenuity.

这是一个诱人的想法，因为它不需要太多的思考或独创性。

It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford -- tough luck.

这让我们可以说，那些医疗保健或学费上涨速度可能超出其承受能力的人——运气不好。

It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job -- life isn�t fair.

它让我们能够对失去工作的美泰克工人说——生活是不公平的。

It let�s us say to the child who was born into poverty -- pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

这让我们对出身贫困的孩子说——自力更生。

And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life�s lottery, that we�re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won�t be the chump who Donald Trump says: �You�re fired!�

它特别诱人，因为我们每个人都相信我们将永远是人生彩票的赢家，我们将成为下一个唐纳德·特朗普，或者至少我们不会成为唐纳德·特朗普所说的“你被解雇了！”的傻瓜。

But there is a problem.

但有一个问题。

It won�t work.

这是行不通的。

It ignores our history.

它忽视了我们的历史。

It ignores the fact that it�s been government research and investment that made the railways possible and the internet possible.

它忽略了这样一个事实：正是政府的研究和投资才使得铁路和互联网成为可能。

It�s been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools that allowed us all to prosper.

正是通过体面的工资和福利以及公立学校建立了庞大的中产阶级，才让我们所有人都繁荣起来。

Our economic dependence depended on individual initiative.

我们的经济依赖取决于个人的主动性。

It depended on a belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we�re all in it together and everybody�s got a shot at opportunity.

这取决于对自由市场的信念；但这也取决于我们相互尊重的感觉，以及每个人都与国家有利害关系的理念，我们都在一起，每个人都有机会获得机会。

That�s what�s produced our unrivaled political stability.

这就是我们无与伦比的政治稳定性的原因。

And so if we do nothing in the face of globalization, more people will continue to lose their health care.

因此，如果我们面对全球化无所作为，更多的人将继续失去医疗保健。

Fewer kids will be able to afford the diploma you�re about to receive.

能够负担得起您即将获得的文凭的孩子将会越来越少。

More companies like United Airlines won�t be able to provide pensions for their employees.

更多像联合航空这样的公司将无法为其员工提供养老金。

And those Maytag workers will be joined in the unemployment line by any worker whose skills can be bought and sold on the global market.

任何技能可以在全球市场上买卖的工人都将加入到这些美泰克工人的失业队伍中。

So today I�m here to tell you what most of you already know.

所以今天我在这里告诉你们大多数人已经知道的事情。

This is not us -- the option that I just mentioned.

这不是我们——我刚才提到的选择。

Doing nothing.

什么也不做。

It�s not how our story ends -- not in this country.

我们的故事不是这样结束的——在这个国家不是这样。

America is a land of big dreamers and big hopes.

美国是一片充满梦想家和希望的土地。

It is this hope that has sustained us through revolution and civil war, depression and world war, a struggle for civil and social rights and the brink of nuclear crisis.

正是这种希望支撑着我们度过了革命和内战、萧条和世界大战、争取公民和社会权利的斗争以及核危机的边缘。

And it is because our dreamers dreamed that we have emerged from each challenge more united, more prosperous, and more admired than before.

正是因为我们的梦想家梦想我们在每次挑战中都变得比以前更加团结、更加繁荣、更加受人尊敬。

So let�s dream.

所以让我们做梦吧。

Instead of doing nothing or simply defending 20th century solutions, let�s imagine together what we could do to give every American a fighting chance in the 21st century.

让我们一起想象一下我们可以做些什么来为每个美国人在 21 世纪提供一个奋斗的机会，而不是无所事事或只是捍卫 20 世纪的解决方案。

What if we prepared every child in America with the education and skills they need to compete in the new economy?

如果我们为美国的每个孩子提供在新经济中竞争所需的教育和技能，结果会怎样？

If we made sure that college was affordable for everyone who wanted to go?

如果我们确保每个想上大学的人都能负担得起大学费用？

If we walked up to those Maytag workers and we said �Your old job is not coming back, but a new job will be there because we�re going to seriously retrain you and there�s life-long education that�s waiting for you -- the sorts of opportunities that Knox has created with the Strong Futures scholarship program.

如果我们走到那些美泰克工人面前，我们说：“你的旧工作不会再回来了，但新工作将会在那里，因为我们将认真地对你进行再培训，并且终身教育正在等待着你——诺克斯通过强未来奖学金计划创造了各种机会。”

What if no matter where you worked or how many times you switched jobs, you had health care and a pension that stayed with you always, so you all had the flexibility to move to a better job or start a new business?

如果无论您在哪里工作或换了多少次工作，您始终享有医疗保健和养老金，这样您就可以灵活地找到更好的工作或开始新的业务，那会怎样呢？

What if instead of cutting budgets for research and development and science, we fueled the genius and the innovation that will lead to the new jobs and new industries of the future?

如果我们不是削减研发和科学预算，而是激发天才和创新，从而带来未来的新就业机会和新产业，结果会怎样呢？

Right now, all across America, there are amazing discoveries being made.

现在，美国各地都有令人惊叹的发现。

If we supported these discoveries on a national level, if we committed ourselves to investing in these possibilities, just imagine what it could do for a town like Galesburg.

如果我们在国家层面上支持这些发现，如果我们致力于投资这些可能性，想象一下它能为像盖尔斯堡这样的城镇带来什么。

Ten or twenty years down the road, that old Maytag plant could re-open its doors as an Ethanol refinery that turned corn into fuel.

十年或二十年后，旧的梅塔格工厂可能会重新开业，成为一家将玉米转化为燃料的乙醇精炼厂。

Down the street, a biotechnology research lab could open up on the cusp of discovering a cure for cancer.

沿着这条街，一家生物技术研究实验室可能会在发现癌症治疗方法的风口浪尖上开业。

And across the way, a new auto company could be busy churning out electric cars.

对面，一家新的汽车公司可能正忙于生产电动汽车。

The new jobs created would be filled by American workers trained with new skills and a world-class education.

新创造的就业岗位将由接受过新技能和世界一流教育培训的美国工人填补。

All of that is possible but none of it will come easy.

所有这些都是可能的，但没有一个是容易实现的。

Every one of us is going to have to work more, read more, train more, think more.

我们每个人都必须更多地工作、更多地阅读、更多地训练、更多地思考。

We will have to slough off some bad habits -- like driving gas guzzlers that weaken our economy and feed our enemies abroad.

我们必须改掉一些坏习惯——比如驾驶高油耗汽车，这会削弱我们的经济并养活我们的海外敌人。

Our children will have to turn off the TV set once in a while and put away the video games and start hitting the books.

我们的孩子将不得不时不时地关掉电视机，收起电子游戏并开始读书。

We�ll have to reform institutions, like our public schools, that were designed for an earlier time.

我们必须改革早期设计的机构，例如我们的公立学校。

Republicans will have to recognize our collective responsibilities, even as Democrats recognize that we have to do more than just defend old programs.

共和党人必须认识到我们的集体责任，尽管民主党人认识到我们要做的不仅仅是捍卫旧计划。

It won�t be easy, but it can be done.

这并不容易，但可以做到。

It can be our future.

它可以是我们的未来。

We have the talent and the resources and brainpower.

我们拥有人才、资源和智力。

But now we need the political will.

但现在我们需要政治意愿。

We need a national commitment.

我们需要国家承诺。

Now, no one can force you to meet these challenges.

现在，没有人可以强迫您应对这些挑战。

If you want, it will be pretty easy for you to leave here today and not give another thought to towns like Galesburg and the challenges they face.

如果您愿意，今天您可以很容易地离开这里，而不必再考虑像盖尔斯堡这样的城镇及其面临的挑战。

There is no community service requirement in the real world; no one is forcing you to care.

现实世界中没有社区服务需求；没有人强迫你去关心。

You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and go chasing after the big house, and the nice suits, and all the other things that our money culture says that you should want, that you should aspire to, that you can buy.

你可以拿着你的文凭，走下这个舞台，去追逐大房子、漂亮的西装，以及我们的金钱文化所说的你应该想要、你应该渴望、你可以买到的所有其他东西。

But I hope you don�t walk away from the challenge.

但我希望你不要逃避挑战。

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition.

把你的生活仅仅集中在赚钱上表明你的野心在一定程度上是贫乏的。

It asks too little of yourself.

对自己要求太低了。

You need to take up the challenges that we face as a nation and make them your own.

你们需要接受我们作为一个国家所面临的挑战，并将其转化为你们自己的挑战。

Not because you have a debt to those who helped you get here, although you do have that debt.

并不是因为你欠那些帮助你到达这里的人的债，尽管你确实欠债。

Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate than you, although I do think you do have that obligation.

并不是因为你对那些不如你幸运的人负有义务，尽管我确实认为你确实有这项义务。

It�s primarily because you have an obligation to yourself.

这主要是因为你对自己负有义务。

Because individual salvation has always depended on collective salvation.

因为个人的救赎始终依赖于集体的救赎。

Because it�s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

因为只有当你把自己的马车挂在比你自己更大的东西上时，你才能意识到自己的真正潜力。

And I know that all of you are wondering how you�ll do this, the challenges seem so big.

我知道你们所有人都想知道如何做到这一点，挑战似乎如此之大。

They seem so difficult for one person to make a difference.

对于一个人来说，要做出改变似乎很难。

But we know it can be done.

但我们知道这是可以做到的。

Because where you�re sitting, in this very place, in this town, it�s happened before.

因为你现在坐的地方，就在这个地方，在这个小镇，这种事以前发生过。

Nearly two centuries ago, before civil rights, before voting rights, before Abraham Lincoln, before the Civil War, before all of that, America was stained by the sin of slavery.

大约两个世纪前，在公民权利之前，在投票权之前，在亚伯拉罕·林肯之前，在内战之前，在所有这一切之前，美国就被奴隶制的罪恶所玷污。

In the sweltering heat of southern plantations, men and women who looked like me could not escape the life of pain and servitude in which they were sold.

在南方种植园的酷热中，像我一样的男男女女都无法摆脱被贩卖的痛苦和奴役生活。

And yet, year after year, as this moral cancer ate away at the American ideals of liberty and equality, the nation was silent.

然而，年复一年，当这种道德癌症侵蚀美国的自由和平等理想时，整个国家却保持沉默。

But its people didn�t stay silent for long.

但它的人民并没有保持沉默太久。

One by one, abolitionists emerged to tell their fellow Americans that this would not be our place in history -- that this was not the America that had captured the imagination of the world.

废奴主义者一一站出来告诉他们的美国同胞，这不会是我们在历史上的位置——这不是吸引世界想象力的美国。

This resistance that they met was fierce, and some paid with their lives.

他们遇到的反抗是激烈的，有些人付出了生命的代价。

But they would not be deterred, and they soon spread out across the country to fight for their cause.

但他们并没有被吓倒，很快他们就遍布全国各地，为自己的事业而奋斗。

One man from New York went west, all the way to the prairies of Illinois to start a colony.

一名来自纽约的男子一路向西，来到伊利诺伊州的大草原，建立了一个殖民地。

And here in Galesburg, freedom found a home.

在盖尔斯堡，自由找到了归宿。

Here in Galesburg, the main depot for the Underground Railroad in Illinois, escaped slaves could roam freely on the streets and take shelter in people�s homes.

在盖尔斯堡，伊利诺伊州地下铁路的主要车站，逃亡的奴隶可以在街道上自由漫步，并在人们的家中避难。

And when their masters or the police would come for them, the people of this town would help them escape north, some literally carrying them in their arms to freedom.

当他们的主人或警察来抓他们时，这个小镇的人们会帮助他们逃往北方，有些人甚至把他们抱在怀里走向自由。

Think about the risks that involved.

考虑一下所涉及的风险。

If they were caught abetting a fugitive, you could�ve been jailed or lynched.

如果他们教唆逃犯被发现，你可能会被监禁或私刑处死。

It would have been simple for these townspeople to turn the other way; to go live their lives in a private peace.

对于这些镇民来说，转身走另一条路是很容易的；去安静地过自己的生活。

Because they knew that we were all Americans; that we were all brothers and sisters; the same reason that a century later, young men and women your age would take Freedom Rides down south, to work for the Civil Rights movement.

因为他们知道我们都是美国人；我们都是兄弟姐妹；同样的原因，一个世纪后，与你同龄的年轻男女会乘坐“自由乘车”南下，为民权运动而努力。

The same reason that black women would walk instead of ride a bus after a long day of doing somebody else�s laundry and cleaning somebody else�s kitchen.

同样的原因，黑人女性在为别人洗衣服和打扫厨房一整天后会步行而不是乘坐公共汽车。

Because they were marching for freedom.

因为他们是为了自由而游行。

Today, on this day of possibility, we stand in the shadow of a lanky, raw-boned man with little formal education who once took the stage at Old Main and told the nation that if anyone did not believe the American principles of freedom and equality, that those principles were timeless and all-inclusive, they should go rip that page out of the Declaration of Independence.

今天，在这个充满可能性的日子里，我们站在一个瘦长、骨瘦如柴、几乎没有受过正规教育的人的阴影下，他曾经在老梅因的舞台上告诉全国，如果有人不相信美国的自由和平等原则，这些原则是永恒的和包罗万象的，他们应该从《独立宣言》中撕掉那一页。

My hope for all of you is that as you leave here today, you decide to keep these principles alive in your own life and in the life of this country.

我对你们所有人的希望是，当你们今天离开这里时，你们决定在自己的生活和这个国家的生活中保持这些原则。

You will be tested.

你将受到考验。

You won�t always succeed.

你不会总是成功。

But know that you have it within your power to try.

但要知道你有能力去尝试。

That generations who have come before you faced these same fears and uncertainties in their own time.

在你们之前的几代人在他们自己的时代也面临着同样的恐惧和不确定性。

And that through our collective labor, and through God�s providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other�s burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that distant horizon, and a better day.

通过我们的集体劳动，通过上帝的旨意，以及我们愿意承担彼此的负担，美国将继续其宝贵的旅程，走向遥远的地​​平线和更美好的一天。

Thank you so much class of 2005, and congratulations on your graduation.

非常感谢2005级的同学，并祝贺你们毕业。

Thank you.

谢谢。

Page Updated : 12/7/23 U.S. Copyright Status : Text = Public Domain.

页面更新：23 年 12 月 7 日美国版权状态：文本 = 公共领域。

Audio = Restricted.

音频 = 受限。

� Copyright 2001-Present.

� 版权所有 2001 年至今。

American Rhetoric.

美国修辞学。

HTML transcription by Leisha M.

HTML 转录由 Leisha M.

Nelms & Michael E.

内姆斯和迈克尔·E.

Eidenmuller.

艾登米勒。