American Rhetoric: Barack Obama - A More Perfect Union (Philadelphia Speech) | barackobamaperfectunion
delivered 18 March 2008, Philadelphia, PA
2008 年 3 月 18 日交付，宾夕法尼亚州费城
[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]
Let me begin by thanking Harris Wofford for his contributions to this country.
首先，我要感谢哈里斯·沃福德对这个国家的贡献。
In so many different ways, he exemplifies what we mean by the word "citizen." And so we are very grateful to him for all the work he has done; and I'm thankful for the gracious and thoughtful introduction.
他以多种不同的方式诠释了“公民”一词的含义。因此，我们非常感谢他所做的所有工作；我很感谢您亲切而周到的介绍。
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.
“我们人民，为了形成一个更加完美的联盟。” 221年前，在街对面的一个大厅里，一群人聚集在一起，用这些简单的话语启动了美国不可能的民主实验。
Farmers and scholars, statesmen and patriots who had traveled across the ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their Declaration of Independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
为逃避暴政和迫害而漂洋过海的农民、学者、政治家和爱国者们终于在 1787 年春天举行的费城大会上发表了《独立宣言》。
The document they produced was eventually signed, but ultimately unfinished.
他们制作的文件最终被签署，但最终尚未完成。
It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
它被这个国家的奴隶制原罪玷污了，这个问题导致了殖民地的分裂，并使大会陷入僵局，直到开国元勋们选择允许奴隶贸易继续至少 20 年，并将任何最终解决方案留给子孙后代。
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution -- a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
当然，奴隶制问题的答案已经包含在我们的宪法中——这部宪法的核心是法律面前人人平等的理想；一部承诺人民自由和正义的宪法，以及一个可以而且应该随着时间的推移而完善的联邦。
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.
然而，羊皮纸上的文字不足以将奴隶从奴役中解放出来，也不足以为各种肤色和信仰的男人和女人提供作为美国公民的全部权利和义务。
What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part -- through protests and struggles, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience, and always at great risk -- to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
我们需要的是一代又一代的美国人愿意尽自己的一份力量——通过抗议和斗争，走上街头和法庭，通过内战和公民不服从，并始终冒着巨大的风险——缩小我们理想的承诺与他们时代现实之间的差距。
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential campaign: to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.
这是我们在这次总统竞选开始时提出的任务之一：继续我们前人的长征，为一个更公正、更平等、更自由、更关爱和更繁荣的美国而前进。
I chose to run for President at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.
我选择在这个历史时刻竞选总统，因为我深深相信，除非我们共同解决，否则我们无法解决我们这个时代的挑战，除非我们通过理解我们可能有不同的故事，但我们拥有共同的希望来完善我们的联盟；我们可能看起来不一样，也可能来自不同的地方，但我们都想朝着同一个方向前进：为我们的子孙后代创造更美好的未来。
And this belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people.
这种信念来自于我对美国人民的正派和慷慨的坚定信念。
But it also comes from my own story.
但这也来自我自己的故事。
I'm the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas.
我是一名来自肯尼亚的黑人和一名来自堪萨斯州的白人妇女的儿子。
I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's army during World War II, and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.
我是在一位白人祖父的帮助下长大的，他在二战期间从大萧条中幸存下来，在巴顿的军队服役，还有一位白人祖母，当他在海外时，他在莱文沃斯堡的轰炸机装配线上工作。
I've gone to some of the best schools in America and I've lived in one of the world's poorest nations.
我曾就读于美国一些最好的学校，也曾生活在世界上最贫穷的国家之一。
I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners, an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.
我嫁给了一位美国黑人，她身上流淌着奴隶和奴隶主的血统，这是我们遗传给我们两个宝贝女儿的遗产。
I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins of every race and every hue scattered across three continents.
我的兄弟姐妹、侄女、侄子、叔叔和表兄弟姐妹遍布三大洲，他们来自不同种族、不同肤色。
And for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.
只要我活着，我就永远不会忘记，在地球上任何其他国家，我的故事都不可能发生。
It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional of candidates.
这个故事并没有让我成为最传统的候选人。
But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts -- that out of many, we are truly one.
但这是一个故事，它深深地烙印在我的基因构成中，即这个国家不仅仅是各个部分的总和——在众多国家中，我们真正是一个国家。
Now throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity.
现在，在这场竞选的第一年里，与所有相反的预测相反，我们看到美国人民对这种团结的信息是多么渴望。
Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country.
尽管人们很想从纯粹的种族角度来看待我的候选资格，但我们在全国白人人口最多的州赢得了压倒性的胜利。
In South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
在南方联盟旗帜仍然飘扬的南卡罗来纳州，我们建立了一个由非裔美国人和白人组成的强大联盟。
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in this campaign.
这并不是说种族在这次竞选中不是一个问题。
At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary.
在竞选的各个阶段，一些评论员认为我要么“太黑”，要么“不够黑”。在南卡罗来纳州初选前一周，我们看到种族紧张局势浮出水面。
The press has scoured every single exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
媒体在每一次出口民意调查中都搜寻了种族两极分化的最新证据，不仅包括白人和黑人，还包括黑人和棕色人种。
And yet, it's only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
然而，直到最近几周，本次竞选中有关种族的讨论才出现了特别分裂的转变。
On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wild and wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.
另一方面，我们听到这样的暗示：我的候选资格在某种程度上是平权行动的一种实践；它完全基于疯狂而睁大眼睛的自由主义者以廉价购买种族和解的愿望。
On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation and that rightly offend white and black alike.
另一方面，我们听到我的前牧师耶利米·赖特（Jeremiah Wright）使用煽动性语言来表达观点，这些观点不仅有可能扩大种族分歧，而且还诋毁我们国家的伟大和善良，并且理所当然地冒犯了白人和黑人。
Now I've already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy, and in some cases, pain.
现在，我已经明确谴责赖特牧师的言论，这些言论引起了如此多的争议，在某些情况下甚至造成了痛苦。
For some, nagging questions remain: Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy?
对于一些人来说，挥之不去的问题仍然存在：我是否知道他偶尔会激烈批评美国的国内和外交政策？
Of course.
当然。
Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in the church?
当我坐在教堂里时，我是否曾听过他说过一些可能被认为有争议的言论？
Yes.
是的。
Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views?
我是否强烈反对他的许多政治观点？
Absolutely, just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.
当然，正如我确信你们中的许多人都听过牧师、神父或拉比的言论，而你们对此表示强烈反对。
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial.
但最近引起这场轩然大波的言论不仅仅是有争议的。
They weren't simply a religious leader's efforts to speak out against perceived injustice.
它们不仅仅是宗教领袖公开反对不公正行为的努力。
Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
相反，他们对这个国家表达了一种严重扭曲的观点，这种观点认为白人种族主义是一种普遍现象，并将美国的问题置于我们所知道的美国正确的一切之上；这种观点认为，中东冲突主要根源于以色列等坚定盟友的行动，而不是源于激进伊斯兰反常和仇恨的意识形态。
As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems: two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis, and potentially devastating climate change -- problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
因此，赖特牧师的评论不仅是错误的，而且是分裂的，在我们需要团结的时候是分裂的；当我们需要团结起来解决一系列重大问题时，我们面临着种族歧视：两场战争、恐怖主义威胁、经济衰退、长期医疗保健危机以及潜在的毁灭性气候变化——这些问题既不是黑人或白人、拉丁裔或亚洲人的问题，而是我们所有人都面临的问题。
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough.
考虑到我的背景、我的政治观点以及我所宣称的价值观和理想，毫无疑问，对于某些人来说，我的谴责声明是不够的。
Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask?
他们可能会问，为什么我首先要与赖特牧师联系在一起？
Why not join another church?
为什么不加入另一个教会呢？
And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television sets and YouTube, if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way.
我承认，如果我对赖特牧师的了解只是电视和 YouTube 上不断循环播放的布道片段，如果三一联合基督教会符合一些评论员兜售的漫画，毫无疑问我也会做出同样的反应。
But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man.
但事实是，这并不是我对这个人的全部了解。
The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another, to care for the sick and lift up the poor.
二十多年前我遇到的那个人帮助我认识了基督教信仰，他向我讲述了我们有义务彼此相爱、照顾病人和扶助穷人。
He is a man who served his country as a United States Marine, and who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who over 30 years has led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth -- by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
他曾作为美国海军陆战队员为国家服务，曾在美国一些最好的大学和神学院学习和讲学，30多年来，他领导了一个教会，通过在地球上做上帝的工作来服务社区——为无家可归者提供住房，为有需要的人提供服务，提供日托服务和奖学金和监狱事工，并为艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者伸出援手。
In my first book, Dreams From My Father , I described the experience of my first service at Trinity, and it goes as follows:
在我的第一本书《父亲的梦想》中，我描述了我在三一学院第一次服务的经历，内容如下：
People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up to the rafters.
人们开始大喊大叫，从座位上站起来，拍手叫喊，一股强风将牧师的声音吹到了房椽上。
And in that single note -- hope -- I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones.
在那个单一的音符中——希望——我听到了别的东西；在十字架的脚下，在全城成千上万的教堂里，我想象着普通黑人的故事与大卫和歌利亚、摩西和法老、狮子坑里的基督徒、以西结的枯骨场的故事融合在一起。
Those stories of survival and freedom and hope became our stories, my story.
那些关于生存、自由和希望的故事成为了我们的故事，我的故事。
The blood that spilled was our blood; the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world.
流淌的血是我们的血；泪水是我们的泪水；直到这座黑人教堂，在这个阳光明媚的日子里，似乎再次成为将一个民族的故事传递给子孙后代和更广阔世界的容器。
Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black.
我们的考验和胜利立刻变得独特又普遍，既是黑色的，又不仅仅是黑色的。
In chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a meaning to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about -- memories that all people might study and cherish and with which we could start to rebuild.
在记录我们的旅程时，故事和歌曲赋予我们一种意义，让我们可以重新唤起我们不需要感到羞耻的记忆——所有人都可以学习和珍惜的记忆，我们可以用它们开始重建。
That has been my experience at Trinity.
这就是我在三一学院的经历。
Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety -- the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger.
与全国其他以黑人为主的教堂一样，三一教堂体现了整个黑人社区——医生和福利妈妈、模范学生和前帮派成员。
Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor.
和其他黑人教堂一样，三一教堂的仪式充满了喧闹的笑声，有时还充满了下流的幽默。
They are full of dancing and clapping and screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear.
他们充满了舞蹈、鼓掌、尖叫和叫喊，对于未经训练的人来说可能会显得刺耳。
The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and biases that make up the black experience in America.
教会充分体现了美国黑人经历的仁慈和残酷、敏锐的智慧和令人震惊的无知、斗争和成功、爱，还有痛苦和偏见。
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright.
这或许有助于解释我与赖特牧师的关系。
As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me.
尽管他可能不完美，但他对我来说就像家人一样。
He strengthens my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children.
他增强了我的信仰，主持了我的婚礼，并为我的孩子们施洗。
Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.
在我与他的谈话中，我从未听到他用贬义的词语谈论任何种族群体，也没有听到他以礼貌和尊重的方式对待与他交往的白人。
He contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
他身上蕴藏着他多年来辛勤服务的社区的矛盾——好的和坏的。
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.
我不能与他断绝关系，就像我不能与黑人社区断绝关系一样。
I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
我不能否认他，就像我不能否认我的白人祖母一样，她是一个抚养我长大的女人，一个为我一次又一次牺牲的女人，一个爱我就像爱这个世界上的任何东西一样的女人，但她曾经承认她害怕在街上从她身边经过的黑人，她不止一次说出让我感到畏缩的种族或民族刻板印象。
These people are part of me.
这些人是我的一部分。
And they are part of America, this country that I love.
他们是美国的一部分，这个我热爱的国家。
Now, some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable.
现在，有些人会认为这是试图为那些根本不可原谅的评论辩护或开脱。
I can assure you it is not.
我可以向你保证，事实并非如此。
And I suppose the politically safe thing to do would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork.
我认为政治上安全的做法是从这一集继续前进，只是希望它逐渐消失。
We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro in the aftermath of her recent statements as harboring some deep -- deep-seated bias.
我们可以将赖特牧师斥为怪人或煽动者，就像杰拉尔丁·费拉罗最近发表言论后一些人斥责她怀有某种根深蒂固的偏见一样。
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now.
但我相信这个国家现在不能忽视种族问题。
We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America: to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
我们会犯赖特牧师在关于美国的冒犯性布道中所犯的同样的错误：简化、刻板印象和放大负面因素，直至扭曲现实。
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through, a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect.
事实上，过去几周发表的评论和出现的问题反映了这个国家种族的复杂性，我们从未真正解决过这一问题，这是我们联盟的一部分，我们尚未完善。
And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American.
如果我们现在走开，如果我们只是退回到各自的角落，我们将永远无法走到一起解决医疗保健或教育等挑战，或者为每个美国人找到好工作的需要。
Understanding -- Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point.
理解——理解这一现实需要提醒我们是如何走到这一步的。
As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried.
正如威廉·福克纳曾经写道：“过去并没有死亡和埋葬。
In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country.
事实上，它甚至还没有过去。”我们不需要在这里重述这个国家种族不平等的历史。
But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist between the African-American community and the larger American community today can be traced directly to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow .
但我们确实需要提醒自己，今天非裔美国人社区和更大的美国社区之间存在的许多差异可以直接追溯到上一代人在奴隶制和种族隔离的残酷遗产下遭受的不平等。
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools.
种族隔离的学校过去和现在都是劣等学校。
We still haven't fixed them, 50 years after Brown versus Board of Education .
布朗诉教育委员会案 50 年后，我们仍然没有解决这些问题。
And the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.
他们当时和现在提供的低劣教育有助于解释当今黑人和白人学生之间普遍存在的成绩差距。
Legalized discrimination, where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or the fire department meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.
合法化的歧视，通常通过暴力阻止黑人拥有财产，或者不向非裔美国企业主发放贷款，或者黑人房主无法获得联邦住房管理局的抵押贷款，或者黑人被排除在工会、警察部队或消防部门之外，这意味着黑人家庭无法积累任何有意义的财富来留给子孙后代。
That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between blacks and whites and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persist in so many of today's urban and rural communities.
这段历史有助于解释黑人和白人之间的财富和收入差距，以及当今许多城乡社区中持续存在的集中贫困地区。
A lack of economic opportunity among black men and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family contributed to the erosion of black families, a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened.
黑人缺乏经济机会，以及因无法养家糊口而感到羞耻和沮丧，导致黑人家庭受到侵蚀，多年来的福利政策可能加剧了这个问题。
And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods -- parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up, building code enforcement -- all helped create a cycle of violence, blight, and neglect that continues to haunt us.
许多城市黑人社区缺乏基本服务——供孩子们玩耍的公园、巡逻的警察、定期垃圾收集、建筑法规执行——所有这些都助长了暴力、破坏和忽视的循环，并继续困扰着我们。
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up.
这就是赖特牧师和他这一代其他非裔美国人成长的现实。
They came of age in the late '50s and early '60s, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted.
他们在 50 年代末和 60 年代初成年，当时种族隔离仍然是国家的法律，机会受到系统性的限制。
What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but how many men and women overcame the odds, how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
值得注意的不是有多少人在歧视面前失败了，而是有多少人克服了困难，有多少人能够为像我这样的追随者走出一条出路。
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it -- those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination.
但对于所有那些为实现美国梦而奋斗的人来说，也有很多人没有成功——那些最终以某种方式因歧视而失败的人。
That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations -- those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future.
失败的遗产被传递给了后代——我们看到那些站在街角或在监狱里煎熬的年轻男子和越来越年轻的妇女，对未来没有希望或前景。
Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their world view in fundamental ways.
即使对于那些成功的黑人来说，种族和种族主义问题仍然从根本上定义着他们的世界观。
For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away, nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.
对于赖特牧师这一代的男男女女来说，屈辱、怀疑和恐惧的记忆并没有消失，那些年的愤怒和痛苦也没有消失。
That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends, but it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table.
这种愤怒可能不会在公共场合、在白人同事或白人朋友面前表达出来，但它确实可以在理发店、美容店或厨房餐桌周围表达出来。
At times, that anger is exploited by politicians to gin up votes along racial lines or to make up for a politician's own failings.
有时，政客们会利用这种愤怒来拉动种族选票或弥补政客自身的失误。
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews.
有时，周日早上，它会在教堂的讲坛上和长椅上发出声音。
The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of that old truism that the most segregated hour of American life occurs on Sunday morning.
事实上，这么多人对赖特牧师的一些布道中的愤怒感到惊讶，这一事实只是让我们想起了一条古老的真理：美国人生活中最种族隔离的时刻发生在周日早上。
That -- That anger is not always productive.
那——那种愤怒并不总是有成效的。
Indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems.
事实上，它常常分散人们对解决实际问题的注意力。
It keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our own condition.
它使我们无法在自己的处境下正视非裔美国人社区中的同谋。
It prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.
它阻止非裔美国人社区建立实现真正变革所需的联盟。
But the anger is real; it is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
但愤怒是真实的；它是强大的，仅仅希望它消失，在不了解其根源的情况下谴责它，只会扩大种族之间存在的误解鸿沟。
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community.
事实上，白人社区的某些部分也存在类似的愤怒。
Most working and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they've been particularly privileged by their race.
大多数美国工薪阶层和中产阶级白人并不觉得自己的种族给他们带来了特别的特权。
Their experience is the immigrant experience.
他们的经历就是移民经历。
As far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything; they built it from scratch.
对他们来说，没有人给他们任何东西；他们从头开始建造它。
They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor.
他们辛苦了一辈子，很多时候却看到自己的工作被转移到海外，或者他们的养老金在辛苦工作了一辈子之后被倾销。
They are anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams slipping away.
他们对自己的未来感到焦虑，感觉自己的梦想正在离我们远去。
And in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.
在工资停滞和全球竞争的时代，机会被视为零和游戏，你的梦想是以我为代价的。
So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudice, resentment builds over time.
因此，当他们被告知用公交车将孩子送到城镇另一边的学校时，当他们听说非裔美国人因为他们自己从未犯下的不公正行为而获得了一份好工作或进入好大学的优势时，当他们被告知他们对城市社区犯罪的恐惧在某种程度上是偏见时，随着时间的推移，怨恨情绪就会逐渐增强。
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company.
就像黑人社区内部的愤怒一样，这些怨恨并不总是以礼貌的方式表达出来。
But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.
但他们帮助塑造了至少一代人的政治格局。
Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition.
对福利和平权行动的愤怒帮助组建了里根联盟。
Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends.
政客们经常利用对犯罪的恐惧来达到自己的选举目的。
Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
脱口秀主持人和保守派评论员的整个职业生涯都是揭露种族主义的虚假主张，同时将有关种族不公正和不平等的合法讨论视为纯粹的政治正确或反向种族主义。
And just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze: a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.
正如黑人的愤怒往往会适得其反一样，这些白人的怨恨也分散了人们对中产阶级挤压的真正罪魁祸首的注意力：充斥着内幕交易、可疑的会计做法和短期贪婪的企业文化；华盛顿由游说者和特殊利益集团主导；有利于少数人而不是多数人的经济政策。
And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns, this, too, widens the racial divide and blocks the path to understanding.
然而，希望消除美国白人的怨恨，给他们贴上误导甚至种族主义的标签，却没有认识到他们有合理的担忧，这也扩大了种族分歧，阻碍了理解的道路。
It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years.
这是我们多年来一直陷入的种族僵局。
And contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle or with a single candidate, particularly -- particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
与我的一些批评者（无论是黑人还是白人）的说法相反，我从来没有天真地相信我们可以在一个选举周期或一个候选人中超越我们的种族分歧，特别是——特别是像我自己这样不完美的候选人。
But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that, working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that, in fact, we have no choice -- we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
但我坚信，这种信念植根于我对上帝的信仰和对美国人民的信仰，即通过共同努力，我们可以超越一些旧有的种族创伤，事实上，我们别无选择——如果我们要继续走上更完美联邦的道路，我们别无选择。
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past.
对于非裔美国人社区来说，这条道路意味着拥抱我们过去的负担，但又不成为我们过去的受害者。
It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life.
这意味着继续坚持在美国生活的各个方面实现充分的正义。
But it also means binding our particular grievances, for better health care and better schools and better jobs, to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family.
但这也意味着将我们对更好的医疗保健、更好的学校和更好的工作的特殊不满与所有美国人的更大愿望联系起来——努力打破玻璃天花板的白人妇女、被解雇的白人、试图养家糊口的移民。
And it means also taking full responsibility for our own lives -- by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism.
它还意味着对我们自己的生活承担全部责任——对我们的父亲要求更多，花更多的时间陪伴我们的孩子，读书给他们听，并教导他们，虽然他们在自己的生活中可能面临挑战和歧视，但他们绝不能屈服于绝望或愤世嫉俗。
They must always believe -- They must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
他们必须永远相信——他们必须永远相信他们可以书写自己的命运。
Ironically, this quintessentially American -- and, yes, conservative -- notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons.
具有讽刺意味的是，这种典型的美国式——是的，保守派——的自助观念在赖特牧师的布道中频繁出现。
But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
但我的前牧师常常无法理解的是，开展自助计划还需要相信社会可以改变。
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society.
赖特牧师布道的严重错误并不在于他谈到了我们社会中的种族主义。
It's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress had been made, as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black, Latino, Asian, rich, poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.
他说的话就好像我们的社会是静止的，好像没有取得任何进展，好像这个国家——这个国家让他自己的一名成员有可能竞选这片土地上的最高职位，并建立了一个白人和黑人、拉丁裔、亚洲人、富人、穷人、年轻人和老年人的联盟——仍然不可逆转地与悲惨的过去联系在一起。
What we know, what we have seen, is that America can change.
我们所知道、我们所看到的是，美国可以改变。
That is true genius of this nation.
这是这个民族真正的天才。
What we have already achieved gives us hope -- the audacity to hope -- for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
我们已经取得的成就给我们带来了希望——充满希望的勇气——我们对明天能够而且必须实现的目标。
Now, in the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- that these things are real and must be addressed.
现在，在白人社区中，通往更完美联邦的道路意味着承认非裔美国人社区的问题不仅仅存在于黑人的头脑中；也存在于黑人的心中。歧视的遗留问题以及当前的歧视事件虽然不如过去那么明显，但这些事情是真实存在的，必须得到解决。
Not just with words, but with deeds -- by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.
不仅用言语，而且用行动——投资我们的学校和社区；执行我们的民权法并确保我们的刑事司法系统的公平性；为这一代人提供前几代人无法获得的机会阶梯。
It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams, that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
它要求所有美国人认识到，你们的梦想不必以牺牲我的梦想为代价，对黑人、棕色人和白人儿童的健康、福利和教育的投资最终将帮助整个美国繁荣。
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more and nothing less than what all the world's great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
那么，归根结底，我们所要求的正是世界上所有伟大宗教的要求：我们己所不欲，勿施于人。
Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us.
圣经告诉我们，让我们成为弟兄的守护者。
Let us be our sister's keeper.
让我们成为妹妹的守护者。
Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
让我们找到彼此之间的共同利害关系，并让我们的政治也体现这一精神。
For we have a choice in this country.
因为我们在这个国家有选择。
We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism.
我们可以接受一种滋生分裂、冲突和愤世嫉俗的政治。
We can tackle race only as spectacle, as we did in the O.J.
我们只能将比赛视为奇观，就像我们在 O.J. 中所做的那样。
trial ; or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina; or as fodder for the nightly news.
审判 ;或者在悲剧发生后，就像我们在卡特里娜飓风过后所做的那样；或作为晚间新闻的素材。
We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.
我们可以每天在每个频道播放赖特牧师的布道，从现在到选举都可以谈论它们，并在这次竞选中提出唯一的问题：美国人民是否认为我在某种程度上相信或同情他最具攻击性的言论。
We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card; or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
我们可以抓住希拉里支持者的一些失态作为她在打种族牌的证据；或者我们可以推测，无论约翰·麦凯恩的政策如何，白人在大选中是否都会涌向他。
We can do that.
我们可以做到。
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction, and then another one, and then another one.
但如果我们这样做，我可以告诉你，在下一次选举中，我们将讨论一些其他的干扰因素，然后是另一个，然后是另一个。
And nothing will change.
一切都不会改变。
Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native-American children.
或者，此时此刻，在这次选举中，我们可以走到一起说：“这次不行。”这次我们想谈谈摇摇欲坠的学校正在窃取黑人儿童、白人儿童、亚洲儿童、西班牙裔儿童和美国原住民儿童的未来。
This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem.
这一次，我们要拒绝那些认为这些孩子无法学习的愤世嫉俗；那些看起来不像我们的孩子是别人的问题。
The children of America are not "those kids," -- they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st-century economy.
美国的孩子不是“那些孩子”——他们是我们的孩子，我们不会让他们在 21 世纪的经济中落后。
Not this time.
这次不是。
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care, who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
这次我们想谈谈急诊室里如何挤满了白人、黑人和西班牙裔，他们没有医疗保健，他们没有能力独自克服华盛顿的特殊利益，但如果我们共同努力，谁可以战胜他们。
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life.
这次我们想谈谈曾经为各个种族的男人和女人提供体面生活的关闭的工厂，以及曾经属于来自各种宗教、每个地区、各行各业的美国人的待售房屋。
This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
这次我们想谈谈这样一个事实：真正的问题不是那些看起来不像你的人可能会抢走你的工作；而是那些看起来不像你的人可能会抢走你的工作。你工作的公司会将其运往海外，无非是为了盈利。
This time -- This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag.
这一次——这一次我们想谈论的是各种肤色和信仰的男男女女，他们在同一面骄傲的旗帜下共同服务、共同战斗、共同流血。
We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that should've never been authorized and should've never been waged.
我们想谈谈如何让他们从一场本不应该被授权、也不应该发动的战争中回家。
And we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits that they have earned.
我们想谈谈我们将如何通过关心他们和他们的家人并给予他们应有的福利来表达我们的爱国主义。
I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country.
如果我不是全心全意地相信这是绝大多数美国人对这个国家的期望，我就不会竞选总统。
This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.
这种结合可能永远不会是完美的，但一代又一代的人已经证明它永远可以完美。
And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
今天，每当我发现自己对这种可能性感到怀疑或愤世嫉俗时，给我最大希望的是下一代——年轻人，他们的态度、信仰和对变革的开放态度已经在这次选举中创造了历史。
There's one story in particular that I'd like to leave you with today, a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist , in Atlanta.
今天我想给你们讲一个特别的故事，这个故事是我在金博士生日那天非常荣幸地在他位于亚特兰大的家乡教堂埃比尼泽浸信会教堂发表演讲时讲的。
There's a young, 23-year-old woman, a white woman named Ashley Baia, who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina.
有一位 23 岁的年轻白人女性，名叫阿什利·拜亚 (Ashley Baia)，她组织了我们在南卡罗来纳州佛罗伦萨的竞选活动。
She'd been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
自竞选活动开始以来，她一直致力于组织一个主要由非裔美国人组成的社区，有一天，她参加了一场圆桌讨论，每个人都在讲述自己的故事以及他们在那里的原因。
And Ashley said that when she was 9 years old, her mother got cancer.
而阿什利则表示，在她9岁时，她的母亲得了癌症。
And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care.
由于她不得不缺勤几天，她被解雇并失去了医疗保健。
They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
他们不得不申请破产，就在那时，阿什利决定她必须做点什么来帮助她的妈妈。
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches -- because that was the cheapest way to eat.
她知道食物是他们最昂贵的成本之一，因此阿什利说服了她的母亲，她真正喜欢并且最想吃的东西是芥末和调味三明治 - 因为这是最便宜的吃法。
That's the mind of a 9 year old.
这就是9岁孩子的心思。
She did this for a year until her mom got better.
她这样做了一年，直到她妈妈康复为止。
And so Ashley told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she had joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
因此，阿什利告诉圆桌会议上的每个人，她加入我们的活动的原因是为了帮助这个国家数百万其他也想要并且需要帮助父母的孩子。
Now, Ashley might have made a different choice.
现在，阿什利可能做出了不同的选择。
Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally.
也许一路上有人告诉她，她母亲的问题根源在于靠福利而懒得工作的黑人，或者非法进入该国的西班牙裔。
But she didn't.
但她没有。
She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
她在反对不公正的斗争中寻找盟友。
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign.
不管怎样，阿什利讲完了她的故事，然后在房间里走来走去，询问其他人为什么支持这场竞选活动。
They all have different stories and different reasons.
他们都有不同的故事和不同的原因。
Many bring up a specific issue.
许多人提出了一个具体问题。
And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time.
最后他们来到了这位一直安静地坐在那里的黑人老人。
And Ashley asks him why he's there.
阿什利问他为什么在那里。
And he doesn't bring up a specific issue.
他没有提出具体问题。
He does not say health care or the economy .
他没有提到医疗保健或经济。
He does not say education or the war .
他没有说教育或战争。
He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama.
他并没有说他在那里是因为巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)。
He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley." "I'm here because of Ashley."
他只是对房间里的每个人说：“我来这里是因为阿什利。” “我来这里是因为艾希礼。”
Now, by itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough.
现在，就其本身而言，那个年轻的白人女孩和那个年长的黑人之间的那一刻的认可是不够的。
It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
为病人提供医疗保健、为失业者提供工作机会或为我们的孩子提供教育是不够的。
But it is where we start.
但这是我们开始的地方。
It is where our union grows stronger.
这是我们工会变得更加强大的地方。
And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the 221 years since a band of patriots signed that document right here in Philadelphia, that is where perfection begins.
自从一群爱国者在费城签署这份文件以来的 221 年里，许多代人逐渐认识到，这就是完美的开始。
Thank you very much, everyone.
非常感谢大家。
Thank you.
谢谢。
Also in this database : Barack Obama - 2004 DNConvention Address ; Announcement for the U.S. Presidency
此数据库中还有：Barack Obama - 2004 DNConvention Address；美国总统竞选公告
Audio Source : C-SPAN.org Page Updated : 2/15/25 U.S. Copyright Status : Text = Uncertain.
音频来源：C-SPAN.org 页面更新：2025 年 2 月 15 日美国版权状态：文本 = 不确定。
Audio = Property of A merican R hetoric.com.
音频 = American R hetoric.com 的财产。
� Copyright 2001-Present.
� 版权所有 2001 年至今。
American Rhetoric.
美国修辞学。