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  • PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: To the King family, who have sacrificed and inspired so much,

  • to President Clinton, President Carter, Vice President Biden, Jill, fellow Americans, five

  • decades ago today, Americans came to this honored place to lay claim to a promise made

  • at our founding.

  • We hold these 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.

  • In 1963, almost 200 years after those words were set to paper, a full century after a

  • great war was fought and emancipation proclaimed, that promise, those truths remained unmet.

  • And so they came by the thousands, from every corner of our country -- men and women, young

  • and old, blacks who longed for freedom and whites who could no longer accept freedom

  • for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of others. Across the land, congregations

  • sent them off with food and with prayer. In the middle of the night, entire blocks of

  • Harlem came out to wish them well.

  • With the few dollars they scrimped from their labor, some bought tickets and boarded buses,

  • even if they couldn't always sit where they wanted to sit. Those with less money hitchhiked,

  • or walked. They were seamstresses, and steelworkers, and students, and teachers, maids and pullman

  • porters. They shared simple meals and bunked together on floors.

  • And then, on a hot summer day, they assembled here, in our nation's capital, under the shadow

  • of the great emancipator, to offer testimony of injustice, to petition their government

  • for redress and to awaken America's long-slumbering conscience.

  • We rightly and best remember Dr. King's soaring oratory that day, how he gave mighty voice

  • to the quiet hopes of millions, how he offered a salvation path for oppressed and oppressors

  • alike. His words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time.

  • But we would do well to recall that day itself also belonged to those ordinary people whose names

  • never appeared in the history books, never got on TV.

  • Many had gone to segregated schools and sat at segregated lunch counters, had lived in

  • towns where they couldn't vote, in cities where their votes didn't matter. There were

  • couples in love who couldn't marry, soldiers who fought for freedom abroad that they found

  • denied to them at home. They had seen loved ones beaten and children fire- hosed. And

  • they had every reason to lash out in anger or resign themselves to a bitter fate.

  • And yet they chose a different path. In the face of hatred, they prayed for their tormentors.

  • In the face of violence, they stood up and sat in with the moral force of nonviolence.

  • Willingly, they went to jail to protest unjust laws, their cells swelling with the sound

  • of freedom songs. A lifetime of indignities had taught them that no man can take away

  • the dignity and grace that God grants us. They had learned through hard experience what

  • Frederick Douglas once taught: that freedom is not given; it must be won through struggle

  • and discipline, persistence and faith.

  • That was the spirit they brought here that day.

  • That was the spirit young people like John Lewis brought that day. That was the spirit

  • that they carried with them like a torch back to their cities and their neighborhoods, that

  • steady flame of conscience and courage that would sustain them through the campaigns to

  • come, through boycotts and voter registration drives and smaller marches, far from the spotlight,

  • through the loss of four little girls in Birmingham, the carnage of Edmund Pettus Bridge and the

  • agony of Dallas, California, Memphis. Through setbacks and heartbreaks and gnawing doubt,

  • that flame of justice flickered and never died.

  • And because they kept marching, America changed. Because they marched, the civil rights law

  • was passed. Because they marched, the voting rights law was signed. Because they marched,

  • doors of opportunity and education swung open so their daughters and sons could finally

  • imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebody else's laundry or shining somebody

  • else's shoes. (Applause.) Because they marched, city councils changed and state legislatures

  • changed and Congress changed and, yes, eventually the White House changed. (Cheers, applause.)

  • Because they marched, America became more free and more fair, not just for African-Americans

  • but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans, for Catholics, Jews and Muslims,

  • for gays, for Americans with disabilities.

  • America changed for you and for me.

  • And the entire world drew strength from that example, whether it be young people who watched

  • from the other side of an Iron Curtain and would eventually tear down that wall, or the

  • young people inside South Africa who would eventually end the scourge of apartheid. (Applause.)

  • Those are the victories they won, with iron wills and hope in their hearts. That is the

  • transformation that they wrought with each step of their well-worn shoes. That's the

  • depth that I and millions of Americans owe those maids, those laborers, those porters,

  • those secretaries -- folks who could have run a company, maybe, if they had ever had

  • a chance; those white students who put themselves in harm's way even though they didn't have

  • to -- (applause) -- those Japanese- Americans who recalled their own interment, those Jewish

  • Americans who had survived the Holocaust, people who could have given up and given in

  • but kept on keeping on, knowing that weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in

  • the morning -- (cheers, applause) -- on the battlefield of justice, men and women without

  • rank or wealth or title or fame would liberate us all, in ways that our children now take

  • for granted as people of all colors and creeds live together and learn together and walk

  • together, and fight alongside one another and love one another, and judge one another

  • by the content of our character in this greatest nation on Earth.

  • To dismiss the magnitude of this progress, to suggest, as some sometimes do, that little

  • has changed -- that dishonors the courage and the sacrifice of those who paid the price

  • to march in those years. (Applause.) Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael

  • Schwerner, Martin Luther King Jr., they did not die in vain. (Applause.) Their victory

  • was great.

  • But we would dishonor those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is

  • somehow complete. The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn't bend

  • on its own. To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not

  • complacency. Whether it's by challenging those who erect new barriers to the vote or ensuring

  • that the scales of justice work equally for all in the criminal justice system and not

  • simply a pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails -- (applause) -- it requires

  • vigilance.

  • (Cheers, applause.)

  • And we'll suffer the occasional setback. But we will win these fights. This country has

  • changed too much. (Applause.) People of good will, regardless of party, are too plentiful

  • for those with ill will to change history's currents. (Applause.)

  • In some ways, though, the securing of civil rights, voting rights, the eradication of

  • legalized discrimination -- the very significance of these victories may have obscured a second

  • goal of the march, for the men and women who gathered 50 years ago were not there in search

  • of some abstract idea. They were there seeking jobs as well as justice -- (applause) -- not

  • just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity. For what does it

  • profit a man, Dr. King would ask, to sit at an integrated lunch counter if he can't afford

  • the meal?

  • This idea that -- that one's liberty is linked to one's livelihood, that the pursuit of happiness

  • requires the dignity of work, the skills to find work, decent pay, some measure of material

  • security -- this idea was not new.

  • Lincoln himself understood the Declaration of Independence in such terms, as a promise

  • that in due time, the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men and that all

  • should have an equal chance.

  • Dr. King explained that the goals of African-Americans were identical to working people of all races:

  • decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare

  • measures -- conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and

  • respect in the community.

  • What King was describing has been the dream of every American. It's what's lured for centuries

  • new arrivals to our shores. And it's along this second dimension of economic opportunity,

  • the chance through honest toil to advance one's station in life, that the goals of 50

  • years ago have fallen most short.

  • Yes, there have been examples of success within black America that would have been unimaginable

  • a half-century ago. But as has already been noted, black unemployment has remained almost

  • twice as high as white employment (sic), Latino unemployment close behind. The gap in wealth

  • between races has not lessened, it's grown.

  • As President Clinton indicated, the position of all working Americans, regardless of color,

  • has eroded, making the dream Dr. King described even more elusive.

  • For over a decade, working Americans of all races have seen their wages and incomes stagnate.

  • Even as corporate profits soar, even as the pay of a fortunate few explodes, inequality

  • has steadily risen over the decades. Upward mobility has become harder. In too many communities

  • across this country in cities and suburbs and rural hamlets, the shadow of poverty casts

  • a pall over our youth, their lives a fortress of substandard schools and diminished prospects,

  • inadequate health care and perennial violence.

  • And so as we mark this anniversary, we must remind ourselves that the measure of progress

  • for those who marched 50 years ago was not merely how many blacks had joined the ranks

  • of millionaires; it was whether this country would admit all people who were willing to

  • work hard, regardless of race, into the ranks of a middle-class life. (Applause.) The test

  • was not and never has been whether the doors of opportunity are cracked a bit wider for

  • a few. It was whether our economic system provides a fair shot for the many, for the

  • black custodian and the white steelworker, the immigrant dishwasher and the Native American

  • veteran. To win that battle, to answer that call -- this remains our great unfinished

  • business.

  • We shouldn't fool ourselves. The task will not be easy. Since 1963 the economy's changed.

  • The twin forces of technology and global competition have subtracted those jobs that once provided

  • a foothold into the middle class, reduced the bargaining power of American workers.

  • And our politics has suffered. Entrenched interests -- those who benefit from an unjust

  • status quo resisted any government efforts to give working families a fair deal, marshaling

  • an army of lobbyists and opinion makers to argue that minimum wage increases or stronger

  • labor laws or taxes on the wealthy who could afford it just to fund crumbling schools -- that

  • all these things violated sound economic principles.

  • We'd be told that growing inequality was the price for a growing economy, a measure of

  • the free market -- that greed was good and compassion ineffective, and those without

  • jobs or health care had only themselves to blame.

  • And then there were those elected officials who found it useful to practice the old politics

  • of division, doing their best to convince middle-class Americans of a great untruth,

  • that government was somehow itself to blame for their growing economic insecurity -- that

  • distant bureaucrats were taking their hard-earned dollars to benefit the welfare cheat or the

  • illegal immigrant.

  • And then, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that during the course of 50 years,

  • there were times when some of us, claiming to push for change, lost our way. The anguish

  • of assassinations set off self-defeating riots.

  • Legitimate grievances against police brutality tipped into excuse- making for criminal behavior.

  • Racial politics could cut both ways as the transformative message of unity and brotherhood

  • was drowned out by the language of recrimination. And what had once been a call for equality

  • of opportunity, the chance for all Americans to work hard and get ahead was too often framed

  • as a mere desire for government support, as if we had no agency in our own liberation,

  • as if poverty was an excuse for not raising your child and the bigotry of others was reason

  • to give up on yourself. All of that history is how progress stalled. That's how hope was

  • diverted. It's how our country remained divided.

  • But the good news is, just as was true in 1963, we now have a choice. We can continue

  • down our current path in which the gears of this great democracy grind to a halt and our

  • children accept a life of lower expectations, where politics is a zero-sum game, where a

  • few do very well while struggling families of every race fight over a shrinking economic

  • pie. That's one path. Or we can have the courage to change.

  • The March on Washington teaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history,

  • that we are masters of our fate.

  • But it also teaches us that the promise of this nation will only be kept when we work

  • together. We'll have to reignite the embers of empathy and fellow feeling, the coalition

  • of conscience that found expression in this place 50 years ago.

  • And I believe that spirit is there, that true force inside each of us. I see it when a white

  • mother recognizes her own daughter in the face of a poor black child. I see it when

  • the black youth thinks of his own grandfather in the dignified steps of an elderly white

  • man. It's there when the native born recognizing that striving spirit of a new immigrant, when

  • the interracial couple connects the pain of a gay couple who were discriminated against

  • and understands it as their own. That's where courage comes from, when we turn not from

  • each other or on each other but towards one another, and we find that we do not walk alone.

  • That's where courage comes from. (Applause.)

  • And with that courage, we can stand together for good jobs and just wages. With that courage,

  • we can stand together for the right to health care in the richest nation on earth for every

  • person. (Applause.) With that courage, we can stand together for the right of every

  • child, from the corners of Anacostia to the hills of Appalachia, to get an education that

  • stirs the mind and captures the spirit and prepares them for the world that awaits them.

  • (Applause.) With that courage, we can feed the hungry and house the homeless and transform

  • bleak wastelands of poverty into fields of commerce and promise.

  • America, I know the road will be long, but I know we can get there. Yes, we will stumble,

  • but I know we'll get back up. That's how a movement happens. That's how history bends.

  • That's how, when somebody is faint of heart, somebody else brings them along and says,

  • come on, we're marching. (Cheers, applause.)

  • There's a reason why so many who marched that day and in the days to come were young, for

  • the young are unconstrained by habits of fear, unconstrained by the conventions of what is.

  • They dared to dream different and to imagine something better. And I am convinced that

  • same imagination, the same hunger of purpose serves in this generation.

  • We might not face the same dangers as 1963, but the fierce urgency of now remains. We

  • may never duplicate the swelling crowds and dazzling processions of that day so long ago,

  • no one can match King's brilliance, but the same flames that lit the heart of all who

  • are willing to take a first step for justice, I know that flame remains. (Applause.)

  • That tireless teacher who gets to class early and stays late and dips into her own pocket

  • to buy supplies because she believes that every child is her charge -- she's marching.

  • (Applause.) That successful businessman who doesn't have to, but pays his workers a fair

  • wage and then offers a shot to a man, maybe an ex-con, who's down on his luck -- he's

  • marching.

  • (Cheers, applause.) The mother who pours her love into her daughter so that she grows up

  • with the confidence to walk through the same doors as anybody's son -- she's marching.

  • (Cheers, applause.) The father who realizes the most important job he'll ever have is

  • raising his boy right, even if he didn't have a father, especially if he didn't have a father

  • at home -- he's marching. (Applause.) The battle-scarred veterans who devote themselves

  • not only to helping their fellow warriors stand again and walk again and run again,

  • but to keep serving their country when they come home -- they are marching. (Applause.)

  • Everyone who realizes what those glorious patriots knew on that day, that change does

  • not come from Washington but to Washington, that change has always been built on our willingness,

  • we, the people, to take on the mantle of citizenship -- you are marching. (Applause.)

  • And that's the lesson of our past, that's the promise of tomorrow, that in the face

  • of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it. And when millions of

  • Americans of every race and every region, every faith and every station can join together

  • in a spirit of brotherhood, then those mountains will be made low, and those rough places will

  • be made plain, and those crooked places, they straighten out towards grace, and we will

  • vindicate the faith of those who sacrificed so much and live up to the true meaning of

  • our creed as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (Cheers,

  • applause.)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: To the King family, who have sacrificed and inspired so much,

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奧巴馬總統在華盛頓遊行50週年紀念會上的講話(高清完整版)。 (President Obama's Speech on the 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington (Complete HD))

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    Solomon Wolf 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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