第一篇是Obama在2004年的民主党全国代表大会上的基调演讲词，不妨给演讲加个名字：the Audacity Of Hope
On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, land of Lincoln,
let me express my deepest gratitude for the privilege of addressing this convention.
Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it,
my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.
My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya.
He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack.
His father, my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant to the British. But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son.
Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place,
America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before.
While studying here, my father met my mother.
She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas.
Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression.
The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty;
joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe.
Back home, my grandmother raised a baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line.
After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A.,
and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity. And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter.
A common dream, born of two continents.
My parents shared not only an improbable love,
they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation.
They would give me an African name, Barack, or “blessed,”
believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.
They imagined... They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich,
because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.
They’re both passed away now.
And yet, I know that on this night they look down on me with great pride. They stand here — And I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage,
aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters.
I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story,
that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.
作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-2 21:59
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our Nation
— not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy.
Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
That is the true genius of America, a faith — a faith in simple dreams,
an insistence on small miracles;
that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm;
that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door;
that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe;
that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution,
and that our votes will be counted — at least most of the time.
This year, in this election we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments,
to hold them against a hard reality and see how we’re measuring up to the legacy of our forbearers and the promise of future generations.
And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, I say to you tonight:
We have more work to do — more work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Illinois,
who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico,
and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour;
more to do for the father that I met who was losing his job and choking back the tears,
wondering how he would pay 4,500 dollars a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on;
more to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her,
who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college.
Now, don’t get me wrong.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-2 22:00
The people I meet, in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks,
they don’t expect government to solve all their problems.
They know they have to work hard to get ahead, and they want to.
Go into the collar counties around Chicago,
and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted,
by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon. Go in... Go into any inner city neighborhood,
and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach our kids to learn;
they know that parents have to teach,
that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets
and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.
They know those things. People don’t expect... People don’t expect government to solve all their problems.
But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities,
we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life,
and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.
They know we can do better. And they want that choice.
In this election, we offer that choice.
Our Party has chosen a man to lead us who embodies the best this country has to offer.
And that man is John Kerry. John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith,
and service because they’ve defined his life.
From his heroic service to Vietnam, to his years as a prosecutor and lieutenant governor,
through two decades in the United States Senate, he’s devoted himself to this country.
Again and again, we’ve seen him make tough choices when easier ones were available.
His values and his record affirm what is best in us.
John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded;
so instead of offering tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas,
he offers them to companies creating jobs here at home.
John Kerry believes in an America where all Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in Washington have for themselves.
John Kerry believes in energy independence,
so we aren’t held hostage to the profits of oil companies, or the sabotage of foreign oil fields.
John Kerry believes in the Constitutional freedoms that have made our country the envy of the world,
and he will never sacrifice our basic liberties, nor use faith as a wedge to divide us.
And John Kerry believes that in a dangerous world, war must be an option sometimes,
but it should never be the first option.
You know, a while back... a while back I met a young man named Shamus in a V.F.W. Hall in East Moline, Illinois.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-2 22:00
He was a good-looking kid — six two, six three, clear-eyed, with an easy smile.
He told me he
And as I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, the absolute faith he had in our country and its leaders,
his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all that any of us might ever hope for in a child.
But then I asked myself, “Are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us?”
I thought of the 900 men and women — sons and daughters, husbands and wives,
friends and neighbors, who won’t be returning to their own hometowns.
I thought of the families I’ve met who were struggling to get by without a loved one’s full income,
or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered,
but still lacked long-term health benefits because they were Reservists.
When we send our young men and women into harm’s way,
we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going,
to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return,
and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace,
and earn the respect of the world.
Now... Now let me be clear. Let me be clear.
We have real enemies in the world.
These enemies must be found. They must be pursued.
And they must be defeated. John Kerry knows this.
And just as Lieutenant Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who served with him in Vietnam,
President Kerry will not hesitate one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and secure.
John Kerry believes in America.
And he knows that it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper — for alongside our famous individualism,
there’s another ingredient in the American saga.
A belief that we’re all connected as one people.
If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child.
If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs,
and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent.
If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process,
that threatens my civil liberties.
It is that fundamental belief... It is that fundamental belief —
I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work.
It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.
E pluribus unum: “Out of many, one.”作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-2 22:01
Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us — the spin masters,
the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of “anything goes” .
Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America
— there is the United States of America.
There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America
— there’s the United States of America.
In the end... In the end... In the end, that’s what this election is about.
Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?
John Kerry calls on us to hope.
John Edwards calls on us to hope.
I’m not talking about blind optimism here
— the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it,
or health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial.
It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs;
the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores;
the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta;
the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds;
the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.
Hope — Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!
In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation.
A belief in things not seen.
A belief that there are better days ahead.
I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity.
I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless,
and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-2 22:01
I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history,
we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.
America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do,
if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do
— if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country,
from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November,
and John Kerry will be sworn in as President,
and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President,
and this country will reclaim its promise,
and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.
Thank you very much everybody. God bless you. Thank you.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:07
下面一篇是Obama正是宣布参选2008年的大选，包括他自己都无不说自己有点太不知好歹了，可是人家最终却是赢得了大选并当选为美国总统。
Let me begin by saying thanks to all of you who’ve traveled,
from far and wide, to brave the cold today.
I know it’s a little chilly — but I’m fired up.
We all made this journey for a reason.
It’s humbling to see a crowd like this, but in my heart I know you didn’t just come here for me;
you know you came here because you believe in what this country can be.
In the face of war, you believe there can be peace.
In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope.
In the face of a politics that’s shut you out, that’s told you to settle,
that’s divided us for too long, you believe that we can be one people,
reaching out for what’s possible, building that more perfect union.
That’s the journey we’re on today.
But let me tell you how I came to be here.
As most of you know, I am not a native of this great state.
I moved to Illinois over two decades ago.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:08
I was a young man then, just a year out of college;
I knew no one in Chicago when I arrived, was without money or family connections.
But a group of churches had offered me a job as a community organizer for the grand sum of $13,000 a year.
And I accepted the job, sight unseen, motivated then by a single, simple, powerful idea
— that I might play a small part in building a better America.
My work took me to some of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods.
I joined with pastors and lay-people to deal with communities that had been ravaged by plant closings.
I saw that the problems people faced weren’t simply local in nature,
that the decision to close a steel mill was made by distant executives,
that the lack of textbooks and computers in the school could be traced to the skewed priorities of politicians a thousand miles away,
and that when a child turns to violence — I came to realize that
— there’s a hole in that boy’s heart that no government alone can fill.
It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education that I ever had,
and where I learned the meaning of my Christian faith.
After three years of this work, I went to law school,
because I wanted to understand how the law should work for those in need.
I became a civil rights lawyer, and taught constitutional law, and after a time,
I came to understand that our cherished rights of liberty
and equality depend on the active participation of an awakened electorate.
It was with these ideas in mind that I arrived in this capital city as a state Senator.
It was here, in Springfield, where I saw all that is America converge
— farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell,
all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard.
I made lasting friendships here — friends that I see in the audience here today.
It was here... It was here where we learned to disagree without being disagreeable
— that it’s possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised;
and that so long as we’re willing to listen to each other,
we can assume the best in people instead of the worst.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:09
It’s why we were able to reform a death penalty system that was broken.
That’s why we were able to give health insurance to children in need.
That’s why we made the tax system right here in Springfield more fair and just for working families,
and that’s why we passed ethics reforms that the cynics said could never, ever be passed.
It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people
— where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America.
And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol,
where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together,
where common hopes and common dreams still live,
I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America.
Now... Now, listen, I... I... I... I... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Look, I...
I recognize that there is a certain presumptuousness — a certain audacity — to this announcement.
I know that I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington.
But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.
The genius of our founders is that they designed a system of government that can be changed.
And we should take heart, because we’ve changed this country before.
In the face of tyranny, a band of patriots brought an Empire to its knees.
In the face of secession, we unified a nation and set the captives free.
In the face of Depression, we put people back to work and lifted millions out of poverty.
We welcomed immigrants to our shores, we opened railroads to the west,
we landed a man on the moon, and we heard a King’s call to let “justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
We’ve done this before: Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what’s needed to be done.
Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call.
For that is our unyielding faith — that in the face of impossible odds,
people who love their country can change it.
That’s what Abraham Lincoln understood.
He had his doubts.
He had his defeats.
He had his skeptics.
He had his setbacks.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:09
But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people.
It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided,
North and South, slave and free.
It is because men and women of every race, from every walk of life,
continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest,
that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together,
as one people — as Americans.
All of us know what those challenges are today — a war with no end,
a dependence on oil that threatens our future, schools where too many children aren’t learning,
and families struggling paycheck to paycheck despite working as hard as they can.
We know the challenges. We’ve heard them.
We’ve talked about them for years.
What’s stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans.
What’s stopped us is the failure of leadership — the smallness... the smallness of our politics
— the ease with which we’re distracted by the petty and trivial,
our chronic avoidance of tough decisions,
our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of
rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle the big problems of America.
For the past six years we’ve been told that our mounting debts don’t matter,
we’ve been told that the anxiety Americans feel about rising health care costs and stagnant wages are an illusion,
we’ve been told that climate change is a hoax,
we’ve been told that tough talk and an ill conceived war can replace diplomacy, and strategy, and foresight.
And when all else fails, when Katrina happens, or the death toll in Iraq mounts, we’ve been told that our crises are somebody else’s fault.
We’re distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.
And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what’s filled the void.
The cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests who’ve turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:10
They write the checks and you get stuck with the bill, they get the access while you get to write a letter,
they think they own this government, but we’re here today to take it back.
The time for that kind of politics is over. It’s through.
It’s time to turn the page — right here and right now.
Now, look... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Look. Look.
We have made some progress already.
I was proud to help lead the fight in Congress that led to the most sweeping ethics reforms since Watergate.
But Washington has a long way to go, and it won’t be easy.
That’s why we’ll have to set priorities.
We’ll have to make hard choices.
And although government will play a crucial role in bringing about the changes that we need,
more money and programs alone will not get us to where we need to go.
Each of us, in our own lives, will have to accept responsibility
— for instilling an ethic of achievement in our children,
for adapting to a more competitive economy,
for strengthening our communities, and sharing some measure of sacrifice.
So let us begin. Let us begin this hard work together.
Let us transform this nation.
Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age.
Let’s set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed.
Let’s recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:10
Let’s make college more affordable, and let’s invest in scientific research,
and let’s lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.
We can do that.
And as our economy changes,
let’s be the generation that ensures our nation’s workers are sharing in our prosperity.
Let’s protect the hard-earned benefits their companies have promised.
Let’s make it possible for hardworking Americans to save for retirement.
Let’s allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country’s middle-class again.
We can do that.
Let’s be the generation that ends poverty in America.
Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job, and earn a living wage that can pay the bills,
and afford child care so their kids could have a safe place to go when they work.
We can do this.
And let’s be the generation that finally, after all these years, tackles our health care crisis.
We can control costs by focusing on prevention, by providing better treatment to the chronically ill,
and using technology to cut the bureaucracy.
Let’s be the generation that says right here, right now,
we will have universal health care in America by the end of the next president’s first term.
We can do that.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:11
Let’s be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil.
We can harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol and spur the production of more fuel-efficient cars.
We can set up a system for capping greenhouse gases.
We can turn this crisis of global warming into a moment of opportunity for innovation,
and job creation, and an incentive for businesses that will serve as a model for the world.
Let’s be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here.
Most of all, let’s be the generation that never forgets what happened on that September day
and confront the terrorists with everything we’ve got.
Politics doesn’t have to divide us on this anymore; we can work together to keep our country safe.
I’ve worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law
that will secure and destroy some of the world’s deadliest weapons.
We can work together to track down terrorists with a stronger military,
we can tighten the net around their finances, and we can improve our intelligence capabilities
and finally get homeland security right.
But let’s also understand that ultimate victory against our enemies will only come by rebuilding our alliances
and exporting those ideals that bring hope and opportunity to millions of people around the globe.
We can do those things.
But all of this cannot come to pass until we bring an end to this war in Iraq.
Most of you know... Most of you know that I opposed this war from the start.
I thought it was a tragic mistake.
Today we grieve for the families who have lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken, and the young lives that could have been.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:11
America, it is time to start bringing our troops home.
It’s time... It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war.
That’s why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008.
Let the Iraqis know... Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever is our last,
best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace.
And there is one other thing that it’s not too late to get right about this war
— that is the homecoming of the men and women — our veterans
— who have sacrificed the most.
Let us honor their courage by providing the care they need and rebuilding the military they love.
Let us be the generation that begins that work.
I know there are those who don’t believe we can do all these things.
I understand the skepticism.
After all, every four years, candidates from both parties make similar promises, and I expect this year will be no different.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:12
All of us running for president will travel around the country offering ten-point plans and making grand speeches;
all of us will trumpet those qualities we believe make us uniquely qualified to lead this country.
But too many times, after the election is over, and the confetti is swept away,
all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in,
and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own.
That is why this campaign can’t only be about me.
It must be about us — it must be about what we can do together.
This campaign must be the occasion, the vehicle, of your hopes, and your dreams.
It will take your time, your energy, and your advice — to push us forward when we’re doing right,
and let us know when we’re not.
This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship,
restoring our sense of common purpose,
and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.
By ourselves, this change will not happen. Divided, we are bound to fail.
But the life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible.
He tells us that there is power in words.
He tells us that there is power in conviction.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-3 20:12
本帖最后由 freehuang 于 2010-11-3 20:13 编辑
That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people.
He tells us that there is power in hope. As Lincoln organized the forces arrayed against slavery, he was heard to say this:
“Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds,
and formed and fought to battle through.”
That is our purpose here today. That is why I’m in this race. Not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation. I want to win that next battle — for justice and opportunity. I want to win that next battle — for better schools, and better jobs, and better health care for all. I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union, and building a better America. And if you will join with me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see,
the future of endless possibility stretching out before us; if you sense,
as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our slumber, and slough off our fears,
and make good on the debt we owe past and future generations,
then I’m ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with you — today.
Together we can finish the work that needs to be done,
and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth. Thank you very much everybody — let’s get to work! I love you. Thank you!
作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-4 11:58
May God Bless You！作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-4 11:59
2008年一月份的在Iowa获得初选胜利的演讲词，特别有激情，民众也是欢呼雀跃。
Thank you Iowa. You know, they said... they said... they said this day would never come.
They said our sights were set too high.
They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose.
But on this January night, at this defining moment in history,
you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do.
You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days.
You have done what America can do in this new year, 2008.
In lines that stretched around schools and churches, in small towns and in big cities,
you came together as Democrats, Republicans and independents,
to stand up and say that we are one nation.
We are one people. And our time for change has come.
You said the time has come to move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that’s consumed Washington;
to end the political strategy that’s been all about division, and instead make it about addition;
to build a coalition for change that stretches through red states and blue states.
Because that’s how we’ll win in November,
and that’s how we’ll finally meet the challenges that we face as a nation.
We are choosing hope over fear.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-4 12:00
We’re choosing unity over division, and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America.
You said the time has come to tell the lobbyists who think their money
and their influence speak louder than our voices that they don’t own this government — we do.
And we are here to take it back.
The time has come for a president who will be honest about the choices and the challenges we face,
who will listen to you and learn from you, even when we disagree,
who won’t just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know.
And in New Hampshire, if you give me the same chance that Iowa did tonight,
I will be that president for America.
I’ll be a president who finally makes health care affordable and available to every single American,
the same way I expanded health care in Illinois by... by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to get the job done.
I’ll be a president who ends the tax breaks for companies
that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of working Americans who deserve it.
I’ll be a president who harnesses the ingenuity of farmers and scientists
and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil once and for all.
And I’ll be a president who ends this war in Iraq and finally brings our troops home,
who restores our moral standing, who understands that 9/11 is not a way to scare up votes
but a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the 21st century,
common threats of terrorism and nuclear weapons, climate change and poverty, genocide and disease.
Tonight, we are one step closer to that vision of America because of what you did here in Iowa.
And so I’d especially like to thank the organizers and the precinct captains,
the volunteers and the staff who made this all possible.
And while I’m at it on thank-yous, I think it makes sense for me to thank the love of my life,
the rock of the Obama family, the closer on the campaign trail.
Give it up for Michelle Obama.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-4 12:00
I know you didn’t do this for me.
You did this... You did this because you believed so deeply in the most American of ideas that in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.
I know this.
I know this because while I may be standing here tonight,
I’ll never forget that my journey began on the streets of Chicago doing what
so many of you have done for this campaign and all the campaigns here in Iowa,
organizing and working and fighting to make people’s lives just a little bit better.
I know how hard it is. It comes with little sleep, little pay and a lot of sacrifice.
There are days of disappointment. But sometimes, just sometimes, there are nights like this;
a night... a night that, years from now, when we’ve made the changes we believe in,
when more families can afford to see a doctor, when our children
— when Malia and Sasha and your children inherit a planet that’s a little cleaner and safer,
when the world sees America differently, and America sees itself as a nation less divided and more united,
you’ll be able to look back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began.
This was the moment when the improbable beat what Washington always said was inevitable.
This was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us for too long;
when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a common cause;
when we finally gave Americans who have never participated in politics a reason to stand up and to do so.
This was the moment when we finally beat back the politics of fear and doubts and cynicism,
the politics where we tear each other down instead of lifting this country up.
This was the moment.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-4 12:01
May God Bless Us!作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-4 12:01
Years from now, you’ll look back and you’ll say that this was the moment,
this was the place where America remembered what it means to hope.
For many months, we’ve been teased, even derided for talking about hope.
But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism.
It’s not ignoring the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path.
It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight.
Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary,
that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it.
Hope is what I saw in the eyes of the young woman in Cedar Rapids who works the night shift
after a full day of college and still can’t afford health care for a sister who’s ill.
A young woman who still believes that this country will give her the chance to live out her dreams.
Hope is what I heard in the voice of the New Hampshire woman
who told me that she hasn’t been able to breathe since her nephew left for Iraq.
Who still goes to bed each night praying for his safe return.
Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire.
What led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation.
What led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters
and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom’s cause.
Hope... Hope is what led me here today.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-4 12:01
With a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas and a story that could only happen in the United States of America.
Hope is the bedrock of this nation.
The belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us,
by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is,
who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.
That is what we started here in Iowa and that is the message we can now carry to New Hampshire and beyond.
The same message we had when we were up and when we were down;
the one that can change this country, brick by brick, block by block,
calloused hand by calloused hand — that together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
Because we are not a collection of red states and blue states.
We are the United States of America. And in this moment,
in this election, we are ready to believe again.
Thank you, Iowa. 作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-5 12:17
在New Hampshire的初选中Obama惜败给希拉里，可是他仍是高兴的发表了这一篇著名演讲，真是达到了不以物喜，不以己悲的境界了，难怪能够最终赢得大选了。不抱希望就是最大的希望！而演讲中的三个平凡的字Yes We Can让人读来无不热血沸腾。
Thank you, New Hampshire.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you guys. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, New Hampshire.
I love you back. Thank you. Thank you.
Well, thank you so much.
I am still fired up and ready to go!
Thank you. Thank you.
Well, first of all, I wanna congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire.
She did an outstanding job. Give her a big round of applause!
You know, a few weeks ago, no one imagined that we’d accomplish what we did here tonight in New Hampshire.
No one could imagine that.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-5 12:17
For most of this campaign, we were far behind. We always knew our climb would be steep.
But in record numbers, you came out and you spoke up for change.
And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment —
in this election — there is something happening in America.
There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport,
in Lebanon and Concord come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be.
There is something happening... There is something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit —
who have never participated in politics before —
turn out in numbers we have never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different.
There is something happening when people vote not just for the party that they belong to but the hopes they hold in common —作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-5 12:17
that whether we are rich or poor, black or white, Latino or Asian, whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire,
Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction.
That’s what’s happening in America right now. Change is what’s happening in America.
You — all of you who are here tonight, all who put so much heart and soul and work into this campaign —
you can be a new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness —
Democrats, Independents and Republicans who are tired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington;
who know that we can disagree without being disagreeable;
who understand... who understand that if we mobilize our voices to challenge the money and influence that’s stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better,
there is no problem we cannot solve, there is no destiny that we cannot fulfill.
Our new American majority can end the outrage of unaffordable, unavailable health care in our time.
We can bring... We can bring doctors and patients, workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together;
and we can tell the drug and insurance industry that while they get a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair.
Not this time. Not now.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-5 12:18
Our new majority can end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas
and put a middle-class tax cut into pockets of working Americans who deserve it.
We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success.
We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness by giving them more pay and more support.
We can do this with our new majority.
We can harness the ingenuity of farmers, scientists, citizens,
and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil, save our planet from a point of no return.
And when I am President of the United States, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home...
We will end this war in Iraq; we will bring our troops home;
we will finish the job... we will finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan;
we will care for our veterans; we will restore our moral standing in the world;
and we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes, because it is not a tactic to win an election,
it is a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the 21st century:
terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-5 12:18
All of the candidates in this race share these goals.
All of the candidates in this race have good ideas.
And all are patriots who serve this country honorably.
But the reason our campaign has always been different,
the reason we began this improbable journey almost a year ago is because it’s not just about what I will do as President,
it is also about what you — the people who love this country,
the citizens of the United States of America — can do to change it.
That’s what this election is all about.
That’s why tonight belongs to you.
It belongs to the organizers and the volunteers and the staff who believed in this journey
and rallied so many others to join the calls.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way,
nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics —
they will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come.
We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-5 12:19
We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we’ve been told that we’re not ready,
or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes we can. Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot,
a President who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-5 12:19
Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.
And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West,
as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas,
that the hopes of the little girl who goes to the crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA,
we will remember that there is something happening in America, that we are not as divided as our politics suggest,
that we are one people, we are one nation; and together,
we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast,
from sea to shining sea — Yes. We. Can.
Thank you, New Hampshire! Thank you! 作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:37
在大选的关键阶段，对手拿出秘密武器来攻击Obama，我们来看看Obama是怎么化危机为力量的。让我们来感受一下这语言中的力量：
“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.
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.
The document they produced was eventually signed, but ultimately unfinished.
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.
...
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.
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...
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.
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.
In South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies,
we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in this campaign.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:37
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms,
the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy, and in some cases, pain.
For some, nagging questions remain:
Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy?
Of course.
Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in the church?
Yes.
Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views?
Absolutely, just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis
with which you strongly disagree.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial.
They weren’t simply a religious leader’s efforts to speak out against perceived injustice.
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.
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.
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.
Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask?
Why not join another church?
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.
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man.
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.
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.
...作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:38
As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me.
He strengthens my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children.
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.
He contains within him the contradictions — the good and the bad
— of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.
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.
These people are part of me.
And they are part of America, this country that I love.
Now, some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable.
I can assure you it is not.
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.
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.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:38
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now.
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.
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.
...
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools.
We still haven’t fixed them, 50 years after Brown versus Board of Education.
And the inferior education they provided, then and now,
helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up.
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.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:39
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.
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.
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.
Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism,
continue to define their world view in fundamental ways.
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.
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.
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.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:41
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews.
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.
That... That anger is not always productive.
Indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems.
It keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our own condition.
It prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.
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.
...
This is where we are right now.
It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years.
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.
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.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past.
It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life.
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.
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.
They must always believe — They must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
...作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:42
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.
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.
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.
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.
Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us.
Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another,
and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country.
We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism.
We can tackle race only as spectacle, as we did in the O.J. trial;
or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina; or as fodder for the nightly news.
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.
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.
We can do that.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-6 11:42
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.
And nothing will change.
That is one option.
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.
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.
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.
Not this time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.
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.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:38
下面让我们来看一篇新学期的Obama致辞，语言自有力量，这话一点不假，我不知这些小学生是否真能从他的语言中得到力量，但是我确实先被感动和激励了。还是来看看他的演讲吧：
Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. How is everybody doing today?
How about Tim Spicer?
I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia.
And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade.
And I am just so glad that all could join us today.
And I wanna thank Wakefield for being such an outstanding host.
Give yourselves a big round of applause.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school.
And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school,
it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous.
I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now with just one more year to go.
And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer
and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.
I know that feeling.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:39
When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a few years.
And my mother, she didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school,
but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an American education.
So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday.
But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.
Now, as you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early.
A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table.
But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and she’d say,
“This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school.
But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you.
I’m here because I wanna talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now, I’ve given a lot of speeches about education.
And I’ve talked about responsibility a lot.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:39
I’ve talked about teachers’ responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track,
and you get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards,
and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working,
where students aren’t getting the opportunities that they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents,
the best schools in the world — and none of it will make a difference,
none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities,
unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers,
unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
That’s what I wanna focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.
I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something that you’re good at.
Every single one of you has something to offer.
And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is.
That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a great writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper —
but you might not know it until you write that English paper — that English class paper that’s assigned to you.
Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor — maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine —
but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:40
Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice —
but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it.
You wanna be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer?
You wanna be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military?
You’re gonna need a good education for every single one of those careers.
You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job.
You’ve got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future.
What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country.
The future of America depends on you.
What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS,
and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment.
You’ll need the insights and critical-thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness,
crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.
You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that’ll create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect
so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems.
If you don’t do that — if you quit on school — you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
I know it’s not always easy to do well in school.
I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that
can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what it’s like.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:40
My father left my family when I was two years old,
and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us the things that other kids had.
There were times when I missed having a father in my life.
There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been on school,
and I did some things I’m not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have.
And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was — I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams.
My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a similar story.
Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have a lot of money.
But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages.
Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need.
Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and there’s not enough money to go around.
Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe,
or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life —
what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home —
none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school.
That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school.
There is no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up.
No one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny.
You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas.
Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school.
Neither of her parents had gone to college.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:41
But she worked hard, earned good grades, and got a scholarship to Brown University —
is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to becoming Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three.
He’s had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory,
so it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork.
But he never fell behind. He’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city,
she managed to get a job at a local health care center,
start a program to keep young people out of gangs, and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
And Jazmin, Andoni, and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you.
They face challenges in their lives just like you do.
In some cases they’ve got it a lot worse off than many of you. But they refused to give up.
They chose to take responsibility for their lives, for their education, and set goals for themselves.
And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education —
and do everything you can to meet them.
Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending some time each day reading a book.
Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community.
Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look,
because you believe, like I do, that all young people deserve a safe environment to study and learn.
Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn.
And along those lines, by the way, I hope all of you are washing your hands a lot,
and that you stay home from school when you don’t feel well,
so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work —
that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star.
Chances are you’re not gonna be any of those things.
The truth is, being successful is hard.
You won’t love every subject that you study.
You won’t click with every teacher that you have.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:41
Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute.
And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s okay.
Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. J.K. Rowling’s —
who wrote Harry Potter — her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career.
But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that’s why I succeed.”
These people succeeded because they understood that you can’t let your failures define you —
you have to let your failures teach you.
You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time.
So if you get into trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to act right.
If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at all things.
You become good at things through hard work.
You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport.
You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song.
You’ve got to practice. The same principle applies to your schoolwork.
You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right.
You might have to read something a few times before you understand it.
You definitely have to do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
I do that every day.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:41
Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness,
it’s a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something,
and that then allows you to learn something new.
So find an adult that you trust — a parent, a grandparent or teacher, a coach or a counselor —
and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged,
and you feel like other people have given up on you, don’t ever give up on yourself,
because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough.
It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder,
who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago,
and went on to wage a revolution and they founded this nation.
Young people.
Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war;
who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon.
Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google and Twitter and Facebook and
changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I wanna ask all of you, what’s your contribution gonna be?
What problems are you gonna solve? What discoveries will you make?
What will a President who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of you did for this country?
Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-10 12:42
I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn.
But you’ve got to do your part, too. So I expect all of you to get serious this year.
I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you.
So don’t let us down. Don’t let your family down or your country down.
Most of all, don’t let yourself down.
Make us all proud.
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you.
God bless America. Thank you.
作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-11 16:32
下一篇是Obama的获胜演讲，不用再介绍了绝对是最经典的一篇演讲，曾经有一位牛人把这篇演讲词给翻译成古汉语，读来特别感觉亲切，有兴趣的可以上网寻找这篇文言文翻译，这里就不展示了，这里只展示英文：
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible;
who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time;
who still questions the power of our democracy,
tonight is your answer.
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen;
by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives,
because they believed that this time must be different;
that their voices could be that difference.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican,
black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled
— Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals
or a collection of Red States and Blue States
— we are, and always will be, the United States of America!
It’s the answer that... that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical,
and fearful, and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history
and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day,
in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.
A little bit earlier this evening,
I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator McCain.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-11 16:32
Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign,
and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves.
He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine.
We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.
I congratulate him; I congratulate Governor Palin for all that they’ve achieved,
and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey,
a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women
he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware,
the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years,
the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation’s next First Lady: Michelle Obama.
Sasha and Malia, I love you both more than you can imagine,
and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.
And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother’s watching,
along with the family that made me who I am.
I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters
— thank you so much for all the support that you’ve given me.
I am grateful to them.
To my campaign manager, David Plouffe — the unsung hero of this campaign,
who built the best — the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.
To my chief strategist David Axelrod — who’s been a partner with me every step of the way.
To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics
— you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you’ve sacrificed to get it done.
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to.
It belongs to you. It belongs to you. I was never the likeliest candidate for this office.
We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements.
Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington.
It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.
It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings
they had to give 5 dollars, 10 dollars and 20 dollars to the cause.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-11 16:32
It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy,
who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.
It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold
and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers,
and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized
and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people,
and for the people has not perished from the Earth.
This is your victory.
I know you didn’t do this just to win an election.
I know you didn’t do it for me.
You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead.
For even as we celebrate tonight,
we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime:
two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight,
we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq
and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep
and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage or pay their doctors’ bills
or save enough for their child’s college education.
There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build,
and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long.
Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term.
But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
I promise you, we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts.
There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President.
And we know the government can’t solve every problem.
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.
I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.
And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation,
the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years
— block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.
This victory alone is not the change we seek.
It is only the chance for us to make that change.
And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.
It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility,
where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.
Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything,
it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.
In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people.
Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship
and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.
Let’s remember that it was a man from this state
who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House,
a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.
Those are values that we all share.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-11 16:33
And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight,
we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.
As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours: “We are not enemies but friends...”
“Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”
To those Americans who — whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight,
but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your President, too.
And all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces,
to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular,
but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those... To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you.
To those who seek peace and security: We support you.
And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright:
Tonight we’ve proved once more that the true strength of our nation
comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth,
but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
That’s the true genius of America: that America can change.
Our union can be perfected. What we’ve already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations.
But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta.
She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line
to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing:
Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery;
a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky;
when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons:
because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America
— the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress;
the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed,
she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land,
she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world,
she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham,
a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “we shall overcome”. Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon; a wall came down in Berlin;
a world was connected by our own science and imagination.
And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote,
because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours,
she knows how America can change. Yes we can.作者: freehuang 时间: 2010-11-11 16:33
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much.
But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves
— if our children should live to see the next century;
if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper,
what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time — to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids;
to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace;
to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth — that, out of many, we are one;
that while we breathe, we hope.
And where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can’t,
we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.
Thank you.
God bless you.
And may God bless the United States of America.作者: zkl521999 时间: 2010-12-14 13:08
