密歇根新闻广播 7月4日美国独立日 看看美国是否成为了理想中的民族

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate American independence with fireworks, picnics, and, for most of us, a day off from work. We’ll have picnics, flirt¹ dangerously with firecrackers, see spectacular fireworks displays, and maybe, just maybe, think about the meaning of it all.

Ask the average person why this day matters, and they’ll tell you it was when our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Well, while the document is indeed dated July 4, 1776, they had voted to sign it two days before.

And, in fact, the signatures were probably added in August. When he signed it, Benjamin Franklin supposedly said something to the effect of, “we must all hang together, or we most assuredly will all hang separately.” As we know they did hang together.

For a long time, hanging together was the American ideal. E pluribus unum meant more than some mystical Latin words, and that’s something we celebrated² on the glorious Fourth.

I’m going to let you in on a secret if you are fairly young. The one thing nobody ever tells you is how quickly time passes, especially if you have a good life. Probably the biggest Fourth of July of all time was the one to celebrate the bicentennial of American independence.

There were tall ships and commemorative coins and the first-ever Space Shuttle, all of which I remember so clearly that it seems impossible to believe that was … 41 years ago.

The nation planned it for 10 years. I remember the TV anchors mentioning the countries their ancestors came from, and Barbara Walters crying triumphantly³ “and I’m glad they did!”

We celebrated immigrants then, instead of fearing and hating them. That Fourth of July came when this nation was recovering from the twin traumas⁴ of Vietnam and Watergate, both of which had ended less than two years before.

Americans still believed we were the last best hope of mankind, despite a losing war and a dishonest president. We saw ourselves as in a contest to persuade the world that our system was the best path to the future, not the one offered by the Soviet⁵ Union.

We still, during our nation’s bicentennial, could be inspired by the words spoken by another president when he’d taken office 15 years before that.

“We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution,” John F. Kennedy told the world in his inaugural⁶ address.

“To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery⁷, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required… not because we seek their votes but because it is right.”

That was the world the Founding Fathers wanted when they started this country, which is why they guaranteed the right of asylum⁸ to anyone persecuted⁹ for their political beliefs. They didn’t talk about “winners” and “losers.”

They thought of government by the people and for the people, and of a nation that believed in the words on the Statue of Liberty. We’ve slipped a bit from our ideals in recent years, as we have in the past. But I will think about the nation we are supposed to be.

Perhaps before long, we’ll be that country again.

1 flirt   

v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者

参考例句：

• He used to flirt with every girl he met.过去他总是看到一个姑娘便跟她调情。
• He watched the stranger flirt with his girlfriend and got fighting mad.看着那个陌生人和他女朋友调情，他都要抓狂了。

2 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

3 triumphantly   

ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地

参考例句：

• The lion was roaring triumphantly. 狮子正在发出胜利的吼叫。
• Robert was looking at me triumphantly. 罗伯特正得意扬扬地看着我。

4 traumas   

n.心灵创伤( trauma的名词复数 )；损伤；痛苦经历；挫折

参考例句：

• She felt exhausted after the traumas of recent weeks. 她经受了最近几个星期的痛苦之后感到精疲力竭。
• Conclusion: Safety lens of spectacles can protect the occurrence of ocular traumas. 结论：安全镜片可以预防眼镜碎片所致的眼外伤。 来自互联网

5 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

6 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

7 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

8 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

9 persecuted   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• Throughout history, people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. 人们因宗教信仰而受迫害的情况贯穿了整个历史。
• Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。