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1、wordThoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream重申美国梦“We hold theses truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“我们认为这些事实是不言自明的，所有人生来都是平等的，他们被造物主赋予了不可剥
2、夺的权力，分别是生存、自由和追求幸福的权力。Those simple words are our starting point as Americans; they describe not only the foundation of our government but the substance of our mon creed. Not every American may be able to recite them; few, if asked, could trace the genesis of the Declaration of Independence to its ro
3、ots in eighteenth-century liberal and republican thought. But the essential idea behind the Declarationthat we are born into thisworld free, all of us; that each of us arrives with a bundle ofrights that cant be taken away by any person or any state without just cause; that through our own agency we
4、 can, and must, make ofour lives what we willis one that every Americanunderstands. It orients us, sets our course, each and every day.这些简洁的言语表达了美国人的根本权利，它们不仅描述了我们政府建立的根底，还说明了我们共同信念的实质。不是每一个美国人能够背诵下这些句子，如果问起，我相信只有少许人能够理解当初通过独立宣言的原因，那扎根于18世纪自由和主义思想。但是，宣言表达的根本概念是，我们所有人降生到这个世界上都是自由的；除了公正的理由，没有任何人或任何国家可
5、以剥夺我们每个人与生俱来的众多权利；我们通过自己的行为能够而且应当使我们的生活达到预期水平，这是每个美国人都了解的。每天，这个信念为我们指引方向，设定我们的人生路线。Indeed, the value of individual freedom is so deeply ingrained in us that we tend to take it forgranted. It is easy to forget that at the time of our nations founding this idea was entirely radical in its implications
6、, as radical as Martin Luthers posting on the church door. It is an idea that some portion of the world still rejectsand for which an even larger portion of humanity finds scant evidence in their daily lives.确实，个人的自由价值观如此根深蒂固地扎根于我们心中，我们往往认为这是理所当然的。很容易无视曾几何时，在我们的国家创造这个理念时，它代表的意义是极度激进的，就像马丁.路德MartinLu
7、ther，16世纪欧洲改革倡导者，新教路德宗创始人在教堂门上贴出对神学的质问一样激进。他的这种思想现在仍不被世界上的某些地方所承受，而由此，更多的人们发现他们在日常生活中缺少足够的意义。In fact, much of my appreciation of our Bill of Rights es from having spent part of my childhood in Indonesia and from still having family in Kenya, countries where individual rights are almost entirely subj
8、ect to the self-restraint of army generals or the whims of corrupt bureaucrats. I remember the first time I took Michelle to Kenya, shortly before we were married. As an African American, Michelle was bursting with excitement about the idea of visiting the continent of her ancestors, and we had a wo
9、nderful time, visiting my grandmother up-country, wandering through the streets of Nairobi, camping in the Serengeti, fishing off the island of Lamu.事实上，我对国家颁布的人权法案1971年增加的用以保护公民的某些权利的美国宪法前十个修正案感激的很大一局部，是由于我的童年曾在印尼呆过一段时间，而且我在肯尼亚还有亲人，在这些国家，公民的个人权利几乎完全掌控在军队将军或腐败官僚手上。我记得在我和米歇尔结婚后不久，我第一次带她去肯尼亚。作为非裔美国人，她
10、对拜访先祖生活的大陆这个主意感到十分激动，而且我们度过了一段美好旅程，看望了住在地的我的祖母，在罗毕Nairobi，肯尼亚首都，位于肯尼亚中南部的高原地区的街上闲逛，在塞伦盖提平原Serengeti宿营，在拉姆Lamu岛外钓鱼。But during our travels Michelle also heardas I had heard during my first trip to Africathe terrible sense on the part of most Kenyans that their fates were not their own. My cousins told
11、 her how difficult it was to find a job or start their own businesses without paying bribes. Activists told usabout being jailed for expressing their opposition to government policies. Even within my own family, Michelle saw how suffocating the demands of family ties and tribal loyalties could be, w
12、ith distant cousins constantly asking for favors, uncles and aunts showing up unannounced. On the flight back to Chicago, Michelle admitted she was looking forward to getting home. “I never realized just how American I was, she said. She hadnt realized just how free she wasor how much she cherished
13、that freedom.但是，在我们的旅途中，米歇尔也听到了我第一次来非洲时所听到的大多数肯尼亚人背负着令人害怕的宿命，他们的命运并不由他们自己决定。我堂兄弟们告诉她，如果不行贿在那里是很难找到工作或经营生意的。政治激进分子向我们讲述了有关发表反对政府政策的言论而被关进监狱的事。即使在我的家族中，米歇尔看到了亲人们对维系家庭纽带，并且要求我们对宗族忠贞达到了多么令人难以忍受的程度，关系疏远的堂兄弟们不断地要我们提供帮助，叔伯和姑姨们没有提前通知就突然出现。在返回芝加哥的航班上，米歇尔向我承认她急于想回国，“我从未意识到自己是如此的美国主义思想，她说。她那时才明白到自己是如此地自由，或是明白到
14、她有多么地珍惜这种自由。At its most elemental level, we understand our liberty in a negative sense. As a general rule we believe in the right to be left alone, and are suspicious of thosewhether Big Brother or nosy neighborswho want to meddle inour business. But we understand our liberty in a more positive sens
15、e as well, in the idea of opportunity and the subsidiary values that help realize opportunityall those homespun virtues that Benjamin Franklin first popularized in Poor Richards Almanack and that have continued to inspire our allegiance through successive generations. The values of self-reliance and
16、self-improvement and risk-taking. The values of drive, discipline,temperance, and hard work. The values of thrift and personal responsibility.在其最根本的层面上，我们了解到我们的自由权利有其消极的一面。作为一个一般准如此，我们坚信自己的权利应该不受侵扰，并且怀疑那些想插手干预我们事务的人不管是主专制政府的人还是好管闲事的邻居。但是我们也了解它积极的一面，机遇和有助于获得机遇的次要价值观的概念本杰明.富兰克林BenjaminFranklin，美国政府官员、作家、科学家和印刷业者。他在美国革命中起了重要作用第一次在穷理查的历书PoorRichardsAlmanack中提到的所有这些朴实的美德得到了推广，而且继续鼓舞一代又一代人尽忠于我们的国家。它们是：自力更生，自我修
