英语演讲稿美国总统奥巴马在马丁路德金纪念堂正式落成时发表的罕见激情洋溢演讲.docx

1、英语演讲稿美国总统奥巴马在马丁路德金纪念堂正式落成时发表的罕见激情洋溢演讲英语演讲稿16日美国总统奥巴马在马丁路德金纪念堂正式落成时发表的罕见激情洋溢演讲 President Obama at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Dedication： We Will Overcome THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. (Applause.) Please be seated. An earthquake and a hurricane may have delayed t

2、his day, but this is a day that would not be denied. For this day, we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s return to the National Mall. In this place, he will stand for all time, among monuments to those who fathered this nation and those who defended it; a black preacher with no official rank or

3、title who somehow gave voice to our deepest dreams and our most lasting ideals, a man who stirred our conscience and thereby helped make our union more perfect. And Dr. King would be the first to remind us that this memorial is not for him alone. The movement of which he was a part depended on an en

4、tire generation of leaders. Many are here today, and for their service and their sacrifice, we owe them our everlasting gratitude. This is a monument to your collective achievement. (Applause.) Some giants of the civil rights movement ?- like Rosa Parks and Dorothy Height, Benjamin Hooks, Reverend F

5、red Shuttlesworth ?- theyve been taken from us these past few years. This monument attests to their strength and their courage, and while we miss them dearly, we know they rest in a better place. And finally, there are the multitudes of men and women whose names never appear in the history books ?-

6、those who marched and those who sang, those who sat in and those who stood firm, those who organized and those who mobilized ?- all those men and women who through countless acts of quiet heroism helped bring about changes few thought were even possible. “By the thousands,” said Dr. King, “faceless,

7、 anonymous, relentless young people, black and whitehave taken our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.” To those men and women, to those foot soldiers for justice,

8、know that this monument is yours, as well. Nearly half a century has passed since that historic March on Washington, a day when thousands upon thousands gathered for jobs and for freedom. That is what our schoolchildren remember best when they think of Dr. King -? his booming voice across this Mall,

9、 calling on America to make freedom a reality for all of Gods children, prophesizing of a day when the jangling discord of our nation would be transformed into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. It is right that we honor that march, that we lift up Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech ?- for without

10、that shining moment, without Dr. Kings glorious words, we might not have had the courage to come as far as we have. Because of that hopeful vision, because of Dr. Kings moral imagination, barricades began to fall and bigotry began to fade. New doors of opportunity swung open for an entire generation

11、. Yes, laws changed, but hearts and minds changed, as well. Look at the faces here around you, and you see an America that is more fair and more free and more just than the one Dr. King addressed that day. We are right to savor that slow but certain progress -? progress thats expressed itself in a m

12、illion ways, large and small, across this nation every single day, as people of all colors and creeds live together, and work together, and fight alongside one another, and learn together, and build together, and love one another. So it is right for us to celebrate today Dr. Kings dream and his visi

13、on of unity. And yet it is also important on this day to remind ourselves that such progress did not come easily; that Dr. Kings faith was hard-won; that it sprung out of a harsh reality and some bitter disappointments. It is right for us to celebrate Dr. Kings marvelous oratory, but it is worth rem

14、embering that progress did not come from words alone. Progress was hard. Progress was purchased through enduring the smack of billy clubs and the blast of fire hoses. It was bought with days in jail cells and nights of bomb threats. For every victory during the height of the civil rights movement, t

15、here were setbacks and there were defeats. We forget now, but during his life, Dr. King wasnt always considered a unifying figure. Even after rising to prominence, even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King was vilified by many, denounced as a rabble rouser and an agitator, a communist and a

16、 radical. He was even attacked by his own people, by those who felt he was going too fast or those who felt he was going too slow; by those who felt he shouldnt meddle in issues like the Vietnam War or the rights of union workers. We know from his own testimony the doubts and the pain this caused hi

17、m, and that the controversy that would swirl around his actions would last until the fateful day he died. I raise all this because nearly 50 years after the March on Washington, our work, Dr. Kings work, is not yet complete. We gather here at a moment of great challenge and great change. In the firs

18、t decade of this new century, we have been tested by war and by tragedy; by an economic crisis and its aftermath that has left millions out of work, and poverty on the rise, and millions more just struggling to get by. Indeed, even before this crisis struck, we had endured a decade of rising inequal

19、ity and stagnant wages. In too many troubled neighborhoods across the country, the conditions of our poorest citizens appear little changed from what existed 50 years ago -? neighborhoods with underfunded schools and broken-down slums, inadequate health care, constant violence, neighborhoods in whic

20、h too many young people grow up with little hope and few prospects for the future. Our work is not done. And so on this day, in which we celebrate a man and a movement that did so much for this country, let us draw strength from those earlier struggles. First and foremost, let us remember that chang

21、e has never been quick. Change has never been simple, or without controversy. Change depends on persistence. Change requires determination. It took a full decade before the moral guidance of Brown v. Board of Education was translated into the enforcement measures of the Civil Rights Act and the Voti

22、ng Rights Act, but those 10 long years did not lead Dr. King to give up. He kept on pushing, he kept on speaking, he kept on marching until change finally came. (Applause.) And then when, even after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed, African Americans still found themselves trapp

23、ed in pockets of poverty across the country, Dr. King didnt say those laws were a failure; he didnt say this is too hard; he didnt say, lets settle for what we got and go home. Instead he said, lets take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality but als

24、o economic justice; lets fight for a living wage and better schools and jobs for all who are willing to work. In other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the “isness” of today. He kept pushing towards the “oughtness” of tomorrow.

25、 And so, as we think about all the work that we must do ?- rebuilding an economy that can compete on a global stage, and fixing our schools so that every child - not just some, but every child - gets a world-class education, and making sure that our health care system is affordable and accessible to

26、 all, and that our economic system is one in which everybody gets a fair shake and everybody does their fair share, let us not be trapped by what is. (Applause.) We cant be discouraged by what is. Weve got to keep pushing for what ought to be, the America we ought to leave to our children, mindful t

27、hat the hardships we face are nothing compared to those Dr. King and his fellow marchers faced 50 years ago, and that if we maintain our faith, in ourselves and in the possibilities of this nation, there is no challenge we cannot surmount. And just as we draw strength from Dr. Kings struggles, so mu

28、st we draw inspiration from his constant insistence on the oneness of man; the belief in his words that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” It was that insistence, rooted in his Christian faith, that led him to tell a group of angry young prot

29、esters, “I love you as I love my own children,” even as one threw a rock that glanced off his neck. It was that insistence, that belief that God resides in each of us, from the high to the low, in the oppressor and the oppressed, that convinced him that people and systems could change. It fortified

30、his belief in non-violence. It permitted him to place his faith in a government that had fallen short of its ideals. It led him to see his charge not only as freeing black America from the shackles of discrimination, but also freeing many Americans from their own prejudices, and freeing Americans of

31、 every color from the depredations of poverty. And so at this moment, when our politics appear so sharply polarized, and faith in our institutions so greatly diminished, we need more than ever to take heed of Dr. Kings teachings. He calls on us to stand in the other persons shoes; to see through the

32、ir eyes; to understand their pain. He tells us that we have a duty to fight against poverty, even if we are well off; to care about the child in the decrepit school even if our own children are doing fine; to show compassion toward the immigrant family, with the knowledge that most of us are only a

33、few generations removed from similar hardships. (Applause.) To say that we are bound together as one people, and must constantly strive to see ourselves in one another, is not to argue for a false unity that papers over our differences and ratifies an unjust status quo. As was true 50 years ago, as has been true through