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罗伯特．F．甘乃迪
(ROBERT F. KENNEDY)
关于小马丁．路德．金之死
On the Death of Martin Luther King,
Jr.
我们需要的……不是分裂……不是仇恨……不是非暴力行动……而是爱和明智，互相同情。
1968年4月4日，小马丁．路德．金博士在孟菲斯遇刺。那天晚上，罗伯特．甘乃迪预定要在印地安那波利斯市一个贫穷的黑人区爲他争取民主党总统候选人提名的竞选运动发表演说。警察告诫甘乃迪当晚不宜去演讲，因爲他们不能保证他的安全。当他到达那个地区时，他发现听衆尚未听说金的遇害。他当晚的即席讲话回顾了一名狙击手的子弹夺去他兄弟的生命后他个人的巨创深痛。
三个月后，1968年6月4日，甘乃迪庆祝在重要的加州初选中旗开得胜。那天晚上他在洛杉矶大使饭店向他的拥护者们演说时，似乎正迈向民主党提名的目标。罗伯特．甘乃迪穿过一间厨房的过道离开饭店，被一名心怀怨恨的巴勒斯坦移民开枪击中，两天后死去。
我有一则不幸的消息要告诉你们，告诉我们全体同胞，告诉全世界爱好和平的人民，那就是马丁．路德．金遇刺身亡。
马丁．路德．金爲他的同胞们把自己的一生献给爱，献给正义，他因爲作出这种努力被害。
在这艰难的一天，在这对美国而言艰难的时刻，问一问我们是怎样一个民族，我们要走向何方，或许不无稗益。对于你们中的黑人──考虑到现场的证据，显然白人须对金的遇刺负责──你们可能义愤填膺，满腔仇恨，亟欲复仇。我们作爲一个国家可能朝那个方向走，即两极分化──黑人和白人互相隔绝，互相仇视。
或者我们能够，正如马丁．路德．金所做的，互相理解，用同一种以爱心和同情去理解的努力取代那种暴力行爲，取代已染遍我们国土的斑斑血迹。
对于你们中那些由这一非正义行动导致对全体白人充满仇恨和怀疑的黑人，我只能说我内心怀着同样的情感。我有一位家庭成员被害，但他是被一个白人杀害的。然而我们必须做出努力，必须在美国作出努力，我们必须努力去理解，努力度过这十分艰难的时期。
我最喜爱的诗人是埃斯库罗斯。他写道：“在我们的睡梦中，不能忘怀的痛苦一点一滴地落在心头，直到我们在自己的绝望中，明智违背我们的意愿受上帝庄严的感召来临。”
在美国我们需要的不是分裂；在美国我们需要的不是仇恨；在美国我们需要的不是非暴力行动或无法无天，而是爱和明智，互相同情，以及对那些仍在我国受苦受难的白人或黑人的正义的感情。
所以今晚我将请求你们回家爲马丁．路德．金的家人祈祷，理应如此，但更重要的是爲我们自己的国家，爲我们大家热爱的国家祈祷──爲理解和我方才提到的同情祈祷。
我们在这个国家能够做得很好。我们将会有艰难的时期。我们以前曾有过艰难的时期。我们将来还会有艰难的时期。这不是暴力的结束；这不是非法行爲的结束；这不是混乱的结束。
但是这个国家白人的大多数和黑人的大多数要求共同生活，要求改善我们的生活水平，要求对这片国土上的全体居民给予公正。
让我们爲实现希腊人多少年前写下的这句箴言献出全部力量：驯服人的野性，使这个世界的生活变得温和宜人。
让我们爲此献出一切，并且爲我们的国家和我们的人民祈祷。
附注：
I have bad
news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over
the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.
Martin
Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human
beings, and he died because of that effort.
In this
difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well
to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For
those of you who are black－considering
the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were
responsible－you
can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can
move in that direction as a country, in great polarization－black
people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one
another.
Or we can
make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and
to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our
land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.
For those
of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at
the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I
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. But we have to make an effort in the
United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these
rather difficult times.
My
favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
What we
need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is
not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness,
but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice
towards those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they
be black.
So I
shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin
Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own
country, which all of us love－a
prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do
well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in
the past. We will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of
violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
But the
vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this
country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want
justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
Let us
dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the
savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this world.
Let us
dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
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