ThoughtsonReclaimingtheAmericanDream重申美国梦中英文对照

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1、文档Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream重申美国梦“We hold theses truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“我们认为这些事实是不言自明的，所有人生来都是平等的，他们被造物主赋予了不可剥夺的

2、权力，分别是生存、自由和追求幸福的权力。Those simple words are our starting point as Americans; they describe not only the foundation of our government but the substance of our mon creed. Not every American may be able to recite them; few, if asked, could trace the genesis of the Declaration of Independence to its root

3、s in eighteenth-century liberal and republican thought. But the essential idea behind the Declarationthat we are born into thisworld free, all of us; that each of us arrives with a bundle ofrights that cant be taken away by any person or any state without just cause; that through our own agency we c

4、an, and must, make ofour lives what we willis one that every Americanunderstands. It orients us, sets our course, each and every day.这些简洁的言语表达了美国人的根本权利，它们不仅描述了我们政府建立的根底，还说明了我们共同信念的实质。不是每一个美国人能够背诵下这些句子，如果问起，我相信只有少许人能够理解当初通过独立宣言的原因，那扎根于18世纪自由和主义思想。但是，宣言表达的根本概念是，我们所有人降生到这个世界上都是自由的；除了公正的理由，没有任何人或任何国家可以剥

5、夺我们每个人与生俱来的众多权利；我们通过自己的行为能够而且应当使我们的生活达到预期水平，这是每个美国人都了解的。每天，这个信念为我们指引方向，设定我们的人生路线。Indeed, the value of individual freedom is so deeply ingrained in us that we tend to take it forgranted. It is easy to forget that at the time of our nations founding this idea was entirely radical in its implications,

6、as radical as Martin Luthers posting on the church door. It is an idea that some portion of the world still rejectsand for which an even larger portion of humanity finds scant evidence in their daily lives.确实，个人的自由价值观如此根深蒂固地扎根于我们心中，我们往往认为这是理所当然的。很容易无视曾几何时，在我们的国家创造这个理念时，它代表的意义是极度激进的，就像马丁.路德MartinLuth

7、er，16世纪欧洲改革倡导者，新教路德宗创始人在教堂门上贴出对神学的质问一样激进。他的这种思想现在仍不被世界上的某些地方所承受，而由此，更多的人们发现他们在日常生活中缺少足够的意义。In fact, much of my appreciation of our Bill of Rights es from having spent part of my childhood in Indonesia and from still having family in Kenya, countries where individual rights are almost entirely subjec

8、t to the self-restraint of army generals or the whims of corrupt bureaucrats. I remember the first time I took Michelle to Kenya, shortly before we were married. As an African American, Michelle was bursting with excitement about the idea of visiting the continent of her ancestors, and we had a wond

9、erful time, visiting my grandmother up-country, wandering through the streets of Nairobi, camping in the Serengeti, fishing off the island of Lamu.事实上，我对国家颁布的人权法案1971年增加的用以保护公民的某些权利的美国宪法前十个修正案感激的很大一局部，是由于我的童年曾在印尼呆过一段时间，而且我在肯尼亚还有亲人，在这些国家，公民的个人权利几乎完全掌控在军队将军或腐败官僚手上。我记得在我和米歇尔结婚后不久，我第一次带她去肯尼亚。作为非裔美国人，她对拜

10、访先祖生活的大陆这个主意感到十分激动，而且我们度过了一段美好旅程，看望了住在地的我的祖母，在罗毕Nairobi，肯尼亚首都，位于肯尼亚中南部的高原地区的街上闲逛，在塞伦盖提平原Serengeti宿营，在拉姆Lamu岛外钓鱼。But during our travels Michelle also heardas I had heard during my first trip to Africathe terrible sense on the part of most Kenyans that their fates were not their own. My cousins told h

11、er how difficult it was to find a job or start their own businesses without paying bribes. Activists told usabout being jailed for expressing their opposition to government policies. Even within my own family, Michelle saw how suffocating the demands of family ties and tribal loyalties could be, wit

12、h distant cousins constantly asking for favors, uncles and aunts showing up unannounced. On the flight back to Chicago, Michelle admitted she was looking forward to getting home. “I never realized just how American I was, she said. She hadnt realized just how free she wasor how much she cherished th

13、at freedom.但是，在我们的旅途中，米歇尔也听到了我第一次来非洲时所听到的大多数肯尼亚人背负着令人害怕的宿命，他们的命运并不由他们自己决定。我堂兄弟们告诉她，如果不行贿在那里是很难找到工作或经营生意的。政治激进分子向我们讲述了有关发表反对政府政策的言论而被关进监狱的事。即使在我的家族中，米歇尔看到了亲人们对维系家庭纽带，并且要求我们对宗族忠贞达到了多么令人难以忍受的程度，关系疏远的堂兄弟们不断地要我们提供帮助，叔伯和姑姨们没有提前通知就突然出现。在返回芝加哥的航班上，米歇尔向我承认她急于想回国，“我从未意识到自己是如此的美国主义思想，她说。她那时才明白到自己是如此地自由，或是明白到她有

14、多么地珍惜这种自由。At its most elemental level, we understand our liberty in a negative sense. As a general rule we believe in the right to be left alone, and are suspicious of thosewhether Big Brother or nosy neighborswho want to meddle inour business. But we understand our liberty in a more positive sense

15、as well, in the idea of opportunity and the subsidiary values that help realize opportunityall those homespun virtues that Benjamin Franklin first popularized in Poor Richards Almanack and that have continued to inspire our allegiance through successive generations. The values of self-reliance andse

16、lf-improvement and risk-taking. The values of drive, discipline,temperance, and hard work. The values of thrift and personal responsibility.在其最根本的层面上，我们了解到我们的自由权利有其消极的一面。作为一个一般准如此，我们坚信自己的权利应该不受侵扰，并且怀疑那些想插手干预我们事务的人不管是主专制政府的人还是好管闲事的邻居。但是我们也了解它积极的一面，机遇和有助于获得机遇的次要价值观的概念本杰明.富兰克林BenjaminFranklin，美国政府官员、作家

17、、科学家和印刷业者。他在美国革命中起了重要作用第一次在穷理查的历书PoorRichardsAlmanack中提到的所有这些朴实的美德得到了推广，而且继续鼓舞一代又一代人尽忠于我们的国家。它们是：自力更生，自我修养和敢于冒险的价值观。自我激励，自我磨练，自我抑制和努力工作的价值观。节俭和勇于承担个人责任的价值观。These values are rooted in a basic optimism about life and a faith in free willa confidence that through pluck and sweat and smarts, each of us

18、can rise above the circumstances of our birth. But these values also express a broader confidence that so long as individual men and women are free to pursue their own interests, society as a whole will prosper. Our system of self-government and our free-market economy depend on the majority of indi

19、vidual Americans adhering to these values. The legitimacy of our government and our economy depend on the degree to which these values are rewarded, which is why the values ofequal opportunity and nondiscrimination plement rather than impinge on our liberty.这些价值观扎根于一种根底的乐观主义，即在自由意志下对生活和信念的乐观，一种经历了斗智

20、斗勇，辛苦劳动和巨大痛苦后形成的自信，我们每个人都可以超越我们的出身环境。但是这些价值观也表达出一种更广泛的自信，只要每个公民都能够自由地去追求他们自己的利益，就会带来社会的整体繁荣。我们政府的机制和自由市场的经济体依靠的是多数美国人坚持着他们自己的价值观。我们的政府和经济体的合法性取决于对这些价值观的回报程度，这就是为什么平等的机遇和无歧视的价值观补足了我们的自由权利，而不是侵犯了。If we Americans are individualistic at heart, if we instinctively chafe against a past of tribal allegianc

21、es, traditions, customs, and castes, it would be a mistake to assume that this is all we are. Our individualism has always been bound by a set of munal values, the glue upon which every healthy society depends. We value the imperatives of family and thecross-generational obligations that family impl

22、ies. We value munity, the neighborliness that expresses itself through raising the barn or coaching the soccer team. We value patriotism and the obligations of citizenship, a sense of duty and sacrifice on behalfof our nation. We value a faith in something bigger than ourselves,whether that somethin

23、g expresses itself in formal religion orethical precepts. And we value the constellation of behaviors that express our mutual regard for one another:honesty,fairness,humility, kindness, courtesy, andpassion.如果我们美国人个个都是利己主义，如果我们本能地看不惯往日的宗族忠贞，传统，风俗和社会等级制度，想当然地认为这就是我们的本性，那就错了。我们的利己主义总是和一组公共价值观联系在一起，那是每

24、个健全的社会所倚仗的凝聚力。我们重视家庭的职责和家庭包含的养育下一代的义务。我们重视社团交流，还有通过建造谷仓或执教足球队所表现出的睦邻友好。我们重视爱国精神和公民义务，职责感和为国献身的精神。我们重视信仰比我们更加强大的东西，无论这种信仰是正式还是伦理说教。我们重视那些表达对彼此尊重的行为举止：诚实，正直，谦虚，善良，有礼貌和有同情心。In every society (and in every individual), these twin strandsthe individualistic and the munal, autonomy and solidarityare in ten

25、sion, and it has been one of the blessings of America that the circumstances of our nations birth allowed us to negotiate these tensions better than most. We did not have to go through any of the violent upheavals that Europe was forced to endure as it shed its feudal past. Our passage from an agric

26、ultural to an industrial society was eased by the sheer size of the continent, vast tracts of land and abundant resources that allowed new immigrants to continually remake themselves.在每个社会中和每个个体中，这两个孪生姐妹利己主义和共有主义，自治和联合在互相比赛，我们国家诞生的环境使得我们与大多数国家相比处于更佳的位置，这是美国的幸事之一，我们可以成功地应对这些紧局势。我们在从封建社会向资本社会转变时，没有必要经

27、历任何激烈的动乱，而欧洲国家都不得已地经历了那些。由于我们国家的大陆的规模，辽阔的国土面积和丰富的自然资源，使得新移民能够继续实现梦想，并缓和了我们从农业社会向工业社会过渡的阵痛。But we cannot avoid these tensions entirely. At times our values collide because in the hands of men each one is subject to distortion and excess. Self-reliance and independence can transform into selfishness a

28、nd license, ambition into greed and a frantic desire to succeed at any cost. More than once in our history weve seen patriotism slide into jingoism,xenophobia, the stifling of dissent; weve seen faith calcify into self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and cruelty toward others.Even the impulse towa

29、rd charity can drift into a stifling paternalism, an unwillingness to acknowledge the ability of othersto do for themselves.但是我们并不能完全对这些冲击视而不见。有时，人们的价值观会起冲突，因为人性是可以被歪曲和放纵的。自力更生和独立自主可以转变为自私和放荡，雄心壮志可以变为贪婪和不计任何代价疯狂渴求成功的期望。在美国的历史中不止一次，我们看到爱国精神不知不觉地陷入侵略主义，仇视外国和扼杀政见不同的势力；我们看到信仰僵化地变为自以为是，封闭的思想和对残忍对待持不同意见者。

30、甚至有心做慈善事业的人都会不由自主地掉入沉闷的家长式作风，不愿意承认其他人的能力，事事亲自参与。When this happenswhen liberty iscited in the defense of a panys decision to dump toxins in ourrivers, or when our collective interest in building an upscale newmall is used to justify the destruction of somebodys homewe depend on the strength of counte

31、rvailing values to temper our judgment and hold such excesses in check.当这种转变发生时，当一个公司决定将有毒物质扔进河里，并辩白称这是它的自由权利时；或者当建造一家高消费的新购物中心时提出我们的集体利益，而认为拆掉他人的家园是正当行为时；我们就得考虑对立的价值观，来进展正确的判断，并且阻止发生上述这些过分行径。Sometimes finding the right balance is relatively easy. We all agree, for instance, that society has a right

32、 to constrain individual freedom when it threatens to do harm to others. The First Amendment doesnt give you the right to yell fire in a crowded theater; your right to practice your religion does not enpass human sacrifice. Likewise, we all agree that there must be limits to the states power to cont

33、rol ourbehavior, even if its for our own good. Not many Americans would feel fortable with the government monitoring what we eat, no matter how many deaths and how much of our medical spending may be due to rising rates of obesity.有时，找到适当的平衡也比拟容易。我们都认同，例如，当个人的自由威胁伤害其它人时，社会有权力约束它。美国宪法第一修正案TheFirst Am

34、endment并没有赋予你权力在拥挤的戏院大叫“着火了，你的权力也并不包括献祭人的生命。同样地，我们也认同，国家权力必须对我们做出限制，来调节我们的行为，即使是追求自身利益的行为。无论多少人因为不断上升的肥胖率而死亡，无论我们的医药花费是多少，仍然没有太多美国人感觉政府有必要控制我们所吃的东西。More often, though, finding the right balance between our peting values is difficult. Tensions arise not because we have steered a wrong course, but sim

35、ply because we live in a plex and contradictory world. I firmly believe, for example, that since 9/11, we have played fast and loose with constitutional principles in the fight against terrorism. But I acknowledge that even the wisest president and most prudent Congress would struggle to balance the

36、 critical demands of our collective security against the equally pelling need to uphold civil liberties. I believe our economic policies pay too little attention to the displacement of manufacturing workersand the destruction of manufacturing towns. But I cannot wish awaythe sometimes peting demands

37、 of economic security and petitiveness.可是，在更多地情况下，在我们起冲突的价值观之间找到适当的平衡也很困难。形成这些紧的冲击不是因为我们走的路线是错的，而仅仅是因为我们生活在一个复杂和矛盾的世界中。我坚信，比方说，经过9.11恐怖袭击后，我们在反恐战争中，一直在宪法原如此上变化无常。但是我知道，就算是最明智的总统和最慎重的国会也会通过博弈来寻求我们急需做到的集体安全，与公民自由这个同样必需拥护的权利之间的平衡。我认为我们的经济政策对失业的制造业工人和以制造业为主的市镇的没落关注得不够。但是我并不希望看到，经济保障失去竞争性需求和竞争能力。Unfortun

38、ately, too often in our national debates we dont even get to the point where we weigh these difficult choices. Instead, we either exaggerate the degree to which policies we dont like impinge on our most sacred values,or play dumb when our own preferred policies conflict with important countervailing

39、 values. Conservatives, for instance, tend to bristle when it es to government interference in the marketplace or their right to bear arms. Yet many of these same conservatives show little to no concern when it es to government wiretapping without a warrant or government attempts to control peoples

40、sexual practices. Conversely, its easy to get most liberals riled up about government encroachments on freedom of thepress or a womans reproductive freedoms. But if you have a conversation with these same liberals about the potential costs of regulation to a small-business owner, you will often draw

41、 a blank stare.不幸的是，在国家辩论中，我们几乎完全避而不谈这些棘手的抉择。而是夸大那些我们不喜欢的、与我们最崇敬的价值观有冲突的政策，又或者是在我们最喜欢的政策和重要的对立价值观发生冲突时，装聋作哑。例如，保守派在政府干预市场或右翼武装起来的时候，他们十分恼火。然而很多这种保守派，在政府没有得到授权的情况下窃听或政府试图控制民众的性行为时，他们又表现出毫不在意。同样地，政府侵犯媒体的自由或女人的生育权利很容易就引起大多数自由主义者的不满。但是如果你与这些自由主义者谈谈政府管控小企业主的潜在本钱，他们根本没有兴趣听。In a country as diverse as ours,

42、there will always be passionate arguments about how we draw the line when it es to government action. That is how our democracy works. But our democracy might work a bit better if we recognized that all of us possess values that are worthy of respect: if liberals at least acknowledged that the recre

43、ational hunter feels the same way about his gun as they feel about their library books,and if conservatives recognized that most women feel as protective of their right to reproductive freedom as evangelicals do of their right to worship.我们生活在一个丰富多彩的国家里，当谈到政府行为时，有关民众如何守住自己的立场的激烈争论总是存在着。我们政治就是这样运行的。但

44、是，如果我们都公认拥有值得尊重的价值观如果自由主义者至少能了解，以打猎为乐的猎人看待他们的枪，就像他们看待图书馆的书一样；如果保守派认识到，大多数女人对生育权的保护就像福音派信徒看待他们礼拜的权力一样，我们的政治就能运行得更好。The same goes for petence. Nothing brightens my day more than dealing with somebody, anybody,who takes pride in their work or goes the extra milean accountant,a plumber, a three-star gen

45、eral, the person on the other end of the phone who actually seems to want to solve your problem. My encounters with such petence seem more sporadic lately; I seem to spend more time looking for somebody in the store to help me orwaiting for the deliveryman to show (up). Other people must notice this

46、; it makes us all cranky, and those of us in government, no less than in business, ignore such perceptions at our own peril.同样，我也看重能力。一天中最快乐的事莫过于与某些人打交道，他们以自己的工作为傲或比别人更加努力，这些人可能是一位会计，一位水管工，一位三星将军，或在另一端的真心想解决你问题的人。近来，我更加难得遇到这种有能力的人，我似乎得花更多时间在商店里才能找到人帮我，或者花更多时间快递才会送到。其他人肯定也注意到了这些，使得我们容易发火。我们中做公职的那些人，还

47、有在公司上班的人，不愿危与他们的利益，所以无视这些行为。Progressives in particular seem confused on this point, which is why we so often get our clocks cleaned in elections. I recently gave a speech at the Kaiser Family Foundation after they released a study showing that the amount ofsex on television has doubled in recent yea

48、rs. Now I enjoy HBO as much as the next guy, and I generally dont care what adults watch in the privacy of their homes. In the case of children, I think its primarily the duty of parents to monitor what they arewatching on television, and in my speech I even suggested that everyone would benefit if

49、parentheaven forbidsimply turned off the TV and tried to strike up a conversation with their kids.特别是革新主义者似乎对这点感到困惑，那是为何我们经常在竞选中全面败北的原因。我最近在凯塞家庭基金会KaiserFamilyFoundation，美国一个独立的全国性卫生保健慈善团体做了一个演讲，就在他们发布了一个研究报告，指出电视上的性镜头在最近几年翻了翻以后。现在我和邻居一样喜欢HBO节目HomeBoxOffice，有线电视网络媒体公司，总部位于美国纽约，我通常并不介意成年人在他们家里观看什么电视节

50、目。但说到儿童，我认为家长的主要职责是监视孩子们在看什么节目，而且我在演讲中甚至建议，如果家长但愿不会如此关掉电视，尝试和孩子们建立对话，那就人人受益了。Everyparent I know, liberal or conservative, plains about the coarsening of the culture, the promotion of easy materialism and instant gratification, the severing of sexuality from intimacy. They may not want government cen

51、sorship, but they want those concerns recognized, their experiences validated. When, for fear of appearing censorious, progressive political leaders cant even acknowledge the problem, those parents start listening to those leaders who willleaders who may be less sensitive to constitutional constrain

52、ts.我所认识的每位家长，无论是自由还是保守派，都埋怨称文化越来越粗糙，推广轻易就会受到影响的唯物主义和即时满足感，将性关系与爱的亲昵行为划分开来。他们也许并不需要政府的审查制度，但他们需要让别人理解他们所关心的东西，希望他们所经历的能够得到肯定。这时，为了防止显得吹毛求疵，进步主义的政治领导们甚至不愿承认问题的存在，所以那些家长开始倾听那些愿意承认问题的领导者可能对宪法约束不大敏感的领导人。Of course, conservatives have their own blind spots when it es to addressing problems in the culture.

53、Take executive pay. In 1980, the average CEO made forth-two times what an average hourly worker took home. By 2005,the ratio was 262 to 1. Conservative outlets likeThe Wall Street Journal editorial page try to justify outlandish salaries and stock options as necessary to attract top talent, and sugg

54、est that the economy actually performs better when Americas corporate leaders are fat and happy. But the explosion in CEO pay has had little to do with improved performance.In fact, some of the countrys mosthighly pensated CEOs over the past decade have presided overhuge drops in earnings,losses in

55、shareholder value, massivelayoffs, and the underfunding of their workers pensionfunds.当然，在解决文化方面的问题时，保守派有他们自己的盲点。以经理和主管人员的薪资来说，在1980年，首席执行官的平均薪资是普通拿时薪的工人的42倍。到了2005年，这个比率达到了262。代表保守派的传媒如华尔街日报社论页试图辨称说，为了吸引高级人才，天价的工资和优先认股权是必须的，并暗指在这些美国公司领导者高兴的吸足了油水时，经济确实开展的更加好了。但是曝光管理阶层的薪资与进步的经济表现没有太大相关性。实际上，在过去十年以来，是

56、一些回报率最高的管理阶层导演了利润的极度下滑，股东的财富损失，大规模下岗和对他们公司的工人养老基金的投资不足。What accounts for the change in CEOpay is not any market imperative. Its cultural. At a time when average workers are experiencing little or no ine growth, many of Americas CEOs have lost any sense of shame about grabbing whatever their pliant,

57、handpicked corporate boards will allow.Americans understand the damage such an ethic of greed has on our collective lives; in a recent survey, they ranked corruption in government and business, and greed and materialism, as two of the three most important moral challenges facing the nation (“raising

58、 kids with the right values ranked first). Conservatives may be right when they argue that the government should not try to determine executive pay packages. But conservatives should at least be willing to speak out against unseemly behavior in corporate boardrooms with the same moral force, the sam

59、e sense of outrage,that they direct against dirty rap lyrics.并不一定是市场影响了管理阶层的薪资的变化。是文化起了重要作用。当美国的普通工人经历少许或没有收入增加的时期，很多公司管理阶层不顾羞耻，只要能弄到钱的地方他们就下手，而且精心挑选那些容许他们这种行为的公司董事会成员。美国人了解了这种贪婪的道德原如此问题给我们大家的生活所带来的伤害；在一次最近的调查中，民众将政府和商业中的贪污，贪婪和唯物主义排在国家所面对的三个最严峻的道德挑战的第二位。“用正确的价值观教育孩子排在第一。当保守派提出争论，称政府应该尝试规定管理阶层的总体薪资时，

60、也许他们是对的。但是他们也应该，至少是自愿地在公司董事会中，以他们反对下流的说唱歌词时同样的道德力量，同样的公愤，来公然反对那些极为不适当的行为。Of course, there are limits to the power of the bully pulpit. Sometimes only the law can fully vindicate our values, particularly when the rights and opportunities of the powerless in our society are at stake.Certainly this has

61、 been true in our efforts to end racial discrimination; as important as moral exhortation was in changing hearts and minds of white Americans during the civil rights era,what ultimately broke the back of Jim Crow and ushered in a new era of race relations were the Supreme Court cases culminating in

62、brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964,and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As these laws were being debated, there were those who argued that government should not interject itself into civil society, that no law could force whitepeople to associate with blacks. Upon hearing these

63、arguments, Dr.King replied, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man loveme but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important, also.当然，天字第一号讲坛(白宫)的能力有限。有时只有法律能够完全维护我们的价值观，特别是当社会中无依无靠的民众的权利和机遇危在旦夕时。当然，经过努力，我们确实消除了种族歧视；在运动时期，就像白种美国人的转变中的心中的道德激励一样重要，最终打破吉姆.克劳法对黑人进展隔离、压制的一套

64、种族歧视作法，并且引领我们进入一个种族关系新纪元的正是最高法院对布朗诉教育委员会案Brown v. Board ofEducation，被认为是美国历史上意义最重大的裁决。它对黑人和白人是否能够一起或分开承受教育的问题做出了最终裁决，推翻了1896年普莱西诉佛格森(Plessy v. Ferguson) 一案的裁定。1896年的判决确定了“隔离但平等(separate but equal)的原如此，该原如此宣称将一样质量的公共设施予以隔离不违反宪法第十四条修正案中的平等保护条款的圆满裁决，1964年法案和1965年投票权法案的制订。在这此法令处于争论中时，有人提出政府不应插手于民间社会中，没有

65、法律可以强迫白人与黑人交往。听到这些争论，金牧师即马丁路德金，MartinLuther King,Jr.，著名的美国运动领袖，1964年度诺贝尔和平奖获得者回应道，“也许法律真的不可以让一个人爱上我，但是它可以保护我不受私刑，我认为这也是非常重要的。Sometimes we need both cultural transformation and government actiona change in values and achange in policyto promote the kind of society we want. The state of our inner-city schools is a case in point. All the money in the world wont boost student achievement if parents make no effort to instill in their children the values of hard work and delayed gratification. But when we as a society