美国国家公共电台 NPR 50 Years After His Death, Making RFK More Than A Ghost And A Mural

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

All this year, NPR is looking at the pivotal events of 1968. Fifty years ago today in the early hours of June 5, Senator Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California primary, a key win in his quest for the White House. But soon after, the Democratic contender for the nomination¹ was gunned down in a kitchen hallway as he walked through the kitchen of LA's Ambassador Hotel. Kennedy died the next day.

Today, 50 years on, Americans young and old are still wrestling with RFK's legacy² and working to breathe new life into his social justice ethos. NPR's Eric Westervelt has our story.

ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE³: Where the Ambassador Hotel once stood in LA's Koreatown neighborhood is now home to six public schools. This 20-acre patch of real estate could've easily become just like the high-end condos and office buildings sprouting⁴ all around it, but people with vision fought that. In the spirit of RFK, they took on big real estate developers, including one named Donald J. Trump⁵, and took a stand for underserved neighborhoods. The very spot Senator Kennedy lay bleeding, cradled by a teenage busboy named Juan Romero, is now a center for teaching and learning.

SUSAN CANJURA: Part of the library does include the area where Kennedy was shot, the kitchen, and it's now behind the librarian's desk.

WESTERVELT: That's RFK High School of the Arts Principal Susan Canjura. She's in the library of the RFK Community Schools beneath a giant, colorful mural of the late senator breaking bread with labor⁷ and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez. The six public schools, Canjura says, have a shared vision to foster social justice to show the some 4,000 students here that RFK is not just a name on the buildings.

CANJURA: We try not to fall into that, right? I think seeing his picture every day on the mural and really thinking about what he means and putting that into our curriculum, too - it's something that I think really lives in this school.

WESTERVELT: An older generation, too, especially those who lived through RFK's death, are also still wrestling with his legacy and relevance⁸ today.

MICHAEL SCOTT: Someplace I read one never really knows the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

WESTERVELT: Michael Scott had just turned 15 50 years ago when he heard that the train carrying RFK's body would pass near his small town of North East, Md., near the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. It was a hot, humid June afternoon when Scott looked at his mother working in the kitchen.

SCOTT: I remember she had her apron⁹ on. She was preparing a meal. And I said, Mom, I'd like to go see the train.

WESTERVELT: For teenage Michael Scott, going to see the funeral train was on one level just something to do on a hot afternoon. But there was more. Scott's father was a local civil rights leader. His parents had great affection for Kennedy, who during his short career worked to unite black, brown and white, a man who the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated¹⁰ stood before a crowd of African-Americans in Indianapolis - some crestfallen¹¹, some angry - and called for unity⁶.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY: I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

SCOTT: There was something beautiful about him just being truthful¹², which is lacking today. It's not a fashionable concept to appear vulnerable or to appear authentic¹³.

WESTERVELT: Scott and his mom were among the estimated 1 million Americans of all colors and classes who spontaneously lined stretches of train track from New York to Washington, D.C., in what one writer said marked a long, sad human chain of mourning.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: A train carried his coffin¹⁴ to Washington.

PETER EDELMAN: I was kind of in a blur¹⁵. You know, it's like losing a close member of the family.

WESTERVELT: Georgetown law professor Peter Edelman knew Robert Kennedy and worked as his legislative¹⁶ aide in the Senate from 1964 until the end. He attended the funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and rode the funeral train down to Washington.

EDELMAN: As we went down - clickety-clack down the tracks - mile by mile, seeing people in the thousands told us what an enormous loss that was and also what a broad support there was for him.

WESTERVELT: As the train passed, many say they felt like hope and justice had been knocked down in an America already rocked by assassinations¹⁷, Vietnam and urban uprisings.

Back at the RFK Community Schools, teacher Elizabeth Mora says it's a challenge making RFK and that history relevant and alive for today's teenagers. Mora, who teaches geography and AP government, says that's where President Donald Trump comes in.

ELIZABETH MORA: To help them understand that these are fights that people have been fighting for a very long time.

WESTERVELT: Mora says Trump's policies, especially his crackdown on illegal immigration, are deeply challenging for many of her students, a majority of whom are Latino. Yet it's exactly that kind of challenge for today that Mora loves about teaching here - to make RFK more than a ghost and a mural.

MORA: To kind of help our students find the agency in themselves to continue fighting for what they want in their communities - equity¹⁸, social justice, health. Turn it into a society that we want.

WESTERVELT: Mora's words resonate with one of RFK's favorite lines, which he used often while campaigning in 1968, from writer George Bernard Shaw. Some men see things as they are and say, why? I dream things that never were and say, why not? Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Los Angeles.

1 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

2 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 sprouting   

v.发芽( sprout的现在分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• new leaves sprouting from the trees 树上长出的新叶
• They were putting fresh earth around sprouting potato stalks. 他们在往绽出新芽的土豆秧周围培新土。 来自名作英译部分

5 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。

6 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。

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

9 apron   

n.围裙；工作裙

参考例句：

• We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
• She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。

10 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

11 crestfallen   

adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的

参考例句：

• He gathered himself up and sneaked off,crushed and crestfallen.他爬起来，偷偷地溜了，一副垂头丧气、被斗败的样子。
• The youth looked exceedingly crestfallen.那青年看上去垂头丧气极了。

12 truthful   

adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的

参考例句：

• You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心，他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
• I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。

13 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

14 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。

15 blur   

n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚

参考例句：

• The houses appeared as a blur in the mist.房子在薄雾中隐隐约约看不清。
• If you move your eyes and your head,the picture will blur.如果你的眼睛或头动了，图像就会变得模糊不清。

16 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

17 assassinations   

n.暗杀( assassination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Most anarchist assassinations were bungled because of haste or spontaneity, in his view. 在他看来，无政府主义者搞的许多刺杀都没成功就是因为匆忙和自发行动。 来自辞典例句
• Assassinations by Israelis of alleged terrorists habitually kill nearby women and children. 在以色列，自称恐怖分子的炸弹自杀者杀害靠近自己的以色列妇女和儿童。 来自互联网

18 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。