密歇根新闻广播 政治就是要做出改变

 

One morning earlier this week, I was in a donut shop on Vernor Avenue in southwest Detroit, in a neighborhood where you hear far more Spanish than English.

In fact, everyone in the shop was speaking Spanish except me and the woman I was drinking coffee with – state Representative Stephanie Chang, who represents this area, and about 90,000 people. Chang's territory also includes the land where the Ambassador Bridge stands as well as the place where the new Gordie Howe International Bridge is to be built.

Politically, by conventional standards, she is an unusual fit for this district, which is more than half African-American and almost one-quarter Hispanic. Chang, who has master's degrees in public policy and social work, was born 34 years ago to parents who emigrated from Taiwan.

Far less than one percent of the population in her district is Asian, yet she is wildly popular with the people she represents. Last year, challenged by six would-be opponents in the Democratic primary, she still got 71 percent of the vote. In the general election, she got a stunning¹ 93 percent.

She shrugged² when I asked why she was so popular, but I already believed I knew the answer. She went into politics to put people first.

Prior to getting elected three years ago, she spent a decade as a community organizer in Detroit. Since going to Lansing, much of her concerns have had to do with the complex issue of benefits for the dilapidated Delray neighborhood where the new bridge will rise. In the end, the city and the state provided an impressive package that includes $10 million in training funds to help some of her constituents³ get the skills they need to get jobs building that bridge.

Earlier this year, the Canadian government granted the Moroun family permission to build their own new bridge, provided they meet a long list of conditions, and Chang is already talking about what that would do to their lives.

But if Chang is able to help it will be from the state Senate. Though she could be elected to one more term in the house, she is instead running for the senate next year. Democrats⁴ lost control of Michigan's senate when she was one month old.

Thanks to gerrymandering, the Republicans have had control ever since, and there is no realistic possibility that will change next year. I asked Chang why she would want to be in a body where she would be doomed⁵ to being in a perpetual minority.

She indicated that if nothing else, she thought she could make bills better at the margins⁶. Politically, she is regarded as quite liberal, and I expected her to have some bitter things to say about the Republicans. But she didn't.

Chang told me her impression of her fellow lawmakers was that “most people are there to try to make a difference for people,” even if they had radically⁷ different ways of going about it.

My impression was that for Stephanie Chang, the bitter ideological⁸ wars of recent years are themselves relics⁹ of the past, and that she sees politics as the art of getting whatever you can done as best as you can. I wonder whether that might be the best we can hope for.

In any event, it sounds better than what we have now.

Jack¹⁰ Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's Senior Political Analyst¹¹. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

1 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

2 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。

6 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

7 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

8 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。

9 relics   

[pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸

参考例句：

• The area is a treasure house of archaeological relics. 这个地区是古文物遗迹的宝库。
• Xi'an is an ancient city full of treasures and saintly relics. 西安是一个有很多宝藏和神圣的遗物的古老城市。

10 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

11 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。