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1、IN DEFENSE OF AMERICAVictor EastmanLadies and Gentlemen,China, a spiritual superpower in the East, upon a very convenient and comfortable occasion brought by a mistake that American missiles made on May 7 1999, with 5000 years of inbred arrogance of moral superiority behind him, is abusing his advan
2、tages of morality and power of history, so much so that he is applying these to America, a virgin pure from and untrodden by principles of this or that kind. He, the hard moral principle preacher, is being too hard upon the little virgin, aged only one 25ths of his own.I, fed, taught, and armed with
3、 strong sense of justice and human right, can not keep away from the duty to stand out, among the slings and arrows of expanding morality, to protect the young and the weak, that is, to speak and write in defense of America.I wonder why China should disbelieve that the May 7 missiles upon the Chines
4、e Embassy in Yugoslavia were mislanded due to a mistake of information or orientation. Much the same way, I wonder why a 50-year-old man should disbelieve that a 2-year-old child may make a mistake! And I wonder why China refuses to tolerate mistakes!Robert Frost, the national poet of America, says,
5、 “to err is human, not to, animal”. And an American proverb says, “Mistakes will happen.” Every error has its excuse. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long live these sayings, and these speak for the May 7 missiles. I wonder why China refuses to learn some tolerance towards errors or m
6、istakes, especially those made by a little virgin free from moral principles.I have to tell China that, America, which is human with every human right, has to err, in order to be human. And I have to teach China some common knowledge of lexicology. The word America means am eri ca; and am means grea
7、t, eri means erry or of errors, ca means car; so America is a great car of errors. As a great car of errors, America is a great human. Why should China make much ado about nothing? And the May 7 mislanding of missiles is actually nothing among the errors of various kinds.I have to tell China that it
8、 is necessary to be tolerant towards errors or mistakes, and that it is better to be too tolerant rather than too severe. Severity deprives people of freedoms. And America is a land of freedoms, of four and many other freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religious worship, freedom from
9、want, and freedom from fear. A person of all freedoms is a happy creature, and a country of all freedoms is a merry land.And I have to teach China some common knowledge of lexicology again. The word American, in the present context, means a merry can. A merry can is a carefree can; and a carefree ca
10、n can can many and much; and a can that can can many and much is a can of freedoms, including the freedom to make mistakes.I have to tell China that it is natural for a human to err, and it is more natural for a happy human as free from cares as a merry can to err. I wonder why an old man should try
11、 to place an old head on the young shoulders of a little child aged only one 25ths of his own? To prevent a little child from erring or making mistakes is to kill the child. I have to protect the child, and I have to teach China some common sense of tolerance.America is a land of great tolerance, an
12、d a land of great respect for great tolerance. It is a technical illusion to believe in mistakelessness; and it is a cultural hegemony to disallow mistakes. America, a technical superpower, though, does not indulge himself in the luxury of the romantic dreams of mistakelessness. Instead, America, be
13、ing very human and very familiar with human nature, tolerates errors or mistakes, of various kinds.America has produced many thinkers to call for tolerance towards various mistakes. Here enter a few. Van Loon worked out a philosophy of tolerance. Robert Frost drew attention to the naturalness of mis
14、take. And Harold Bloom proved the rightfulness of mistakes in reading, with a theory of weak misreading and strong misreading, which has excited much Chinese admiration.It is accepted American practice to tolerate errors or mistakes. Few non-technical examples will suffice. When American soldiers mi
15、sfired balls of lead and of flesh into the Vietnamese girls, the Vietnamese girls tolerated, that is, contained and conceived, and America tolerated; twenty-odd years after the misfiring, when the children of the Vietnamese girls came to America, looking for the men that fired, America tolerated tho
16、se children, and they became merry cans. When Mr Clinton, a ball of fire, had his balls blue, he, in haste, did not throw his blue balls into the watergate of his wife, but into the watergates of others due to mislaunching. The proverb says “error is always in haste”, and Mr Clinton was understood. The watergates performed great tolerance when Mr Clintons blue balls drove in and worked therein, and therefore the gatekeepers present
