密歇根新闻广播 密歇根的坏名声远扬至国外

 

It’s nice to be back. I’ve been gone for the last few weeks on my first real vacation in a few years. Last Sunday, I was doing something I’ve wanted to do all my life – visiting the excavated¹ ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, buried by a volcano in 79 AD.

I was with a group that included many different nationalities when suddenly the guide asked, “Is anyone here from Michigan?”

Well, of course, I said yes. I thought he was going to say something transportation-related; you can still see the ruts in the stone streets caused by horse-drawn Roman vehicles.

During an earlier phase of my career, which has included reporting everywhere from Paraguay to the Philippines, the one thing everyone knew is that we had put the world on wheels.

But no. Instead, the guide, who had a graduate degree from the University of Edinburgh, showed me an ancient water pipe. “See, the Romans knew how to drink out of lead pipes without being poisoned, not like in your Flint,” he said. He didn’t quite have his facts right.

He thought the reason we had lead poisoning in Flint was because we had added something that caused the pipes to corrode², when in fact the problem seems to have been caused by a failure to add a chemical that would have prevented the corrosion³.

Nor is it clear that Romans didn’t suffer ill effects from drinking out of lead pipes or storing wine in lead containers.

But it is sort of embarrassing to have our home state known as the lead poisoning capital of the world. Europe isn’t perfect by any means, and though the Italians I talked with were no great fans of Donald Trump⁴, they knew their nation had elected the highly embarrassing Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister more than once.

However, a new breeze seems to be blowing in a number of western nations. While we remain mired⁵ in ideological⁶ gridlock, both in our state and nationally, France elected a new prime minister who came out of nowhere to promise common sense reforms and cooperation with other nations. Emmanuel Macron’s movement didn’t have a single seat in France’s National Assembly a month ago.

Now, it looks like it will end up with two-thirds of them after this Sunday’s runoff elections are over. “What doesn’t work anymore is the party system,” Macron has told western journalists.

We aren’t France, but it is pretty clear it doesn’t work here either. Earlier this month, pollsters in Great Britain were sure that the Labour Party, which had moved sharply to the left, was headed for a historic defeat. Instead, it made major gains and almost toppled Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May from power.

Suddenly British conservatives have dropped all their plans to cut aid to education, and are instead talking about finding more money for social programs. There seems to be a renewed idea across much of the continent that we are all in this together.

You don’t hear any of that in Lansing, where legislators and the governor spent this month on a deal to weaken teacher pensions.

Nobody is talking unity⁷ in Washington either, but national and state elections will be coming next year.

I can’t wait to see what surprises they may bring.

1 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 corrode   

v.使腐蚀，侵蚀，破害；v.腐蚀，被侵蚀

参考例句：

• The tools will corrode with rust if never used.这些工具如长期不用会长铁锈而损坏。
• It will pollute people's aesthetic taste and corrode social spirit.它污染人们的审美趣味，腐蚀社会精神。

3 corrosion   

n.腐蚀，侵蚀；渐渐毁坏，渐衰

参考例句：

• Corrosion is not covered by the warranty.腐蚀不在保修范围之内。
• Zinc is used to protect other metals from corrosion.锌被用来保护其他金属不受腐蚀。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 mired   

abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德（色温单位）v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country was mired in recession. 这个国家陷入了经济衰退的困境。
• The most brilliant leadership can be mired in detail. 最有才干的领导也会陷于拘泥琐事的困境中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

7 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。