評論
打印
Of course, in the end a sense of mutual understanding isn't enough. After all, talk is cheap; like any value, empathy must be acted upon. When was a community organizer back in the eighties, I would often challenge neighborhood leaders by asking them where they put their time, energy, and money. Those are the true tests of what we value, I'd tell them, regardless of what we like to tell ourselves. If we aren't willing to pay a price for our values, if we aren't willing to make some sacrifices in order to realize them, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all.
當然，最后僅有相互理解的觀念是不夠的。畢竟，言說容易，而同情心和一切價值觀一樣必須付諸行動。我在20世紀80年代組織社區工作時經常質問鄰區的領導，把時間、精力和金錢都花到哪里了。我告訴他們，不管我們要給自己找什么借口，這些是對我們的價值觀的真正考驗。如果我們不愿意為我們的價值觀付出任何代價，如果我們不愿意做出犧牲來實現它們，那么我們應該問自己到底信不信它們。
By these standards at least, it sometimes appears that Americans today value nothing so much as being rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. We say we value the legacy we leave the next generation and then saddle that generation with mountains of debt. We say we believe in equal opportunity but then stand idle while millions of American children languish in poverty. We insist that we value family, but then structure our economy and organize our lives so as to ensure that our families get less and less of our time.
至少根據這些標準，美國人如今看起來最看重的標準是富有、簡樸、年輕、知名、安全，還有享樂。我們說我們重視留給下一代遺產，卻讓這一代背上如山的債務。我們說堅信機會平等，而數百萬美國兒童在貧困中呻吟時，我們卻袖手旁觀。我們堅持認為我們珍惜家庭，而在構建我們的經濟和組織我們的生活時，又為了讓自己不為家庭所累，花在家庭的時間越來越少。
And yet, part of us knows better. We hang on to our values, even if they seem at times tarnished and worn; even if as a nation and in our own lives, we have betrayed them more often than we care to remember. What else is there to guide us? Those values are our inheritance, what makes us who we are as a people. And although we recognize that they are subject to challenge, can be poked and prodded and debunked and turned inside out by intellectuals and cultural critics, they have proven to be both surprisingly durable and surprisingly constant across classes, and races, and faiths, and generations. We can make claims on their behalf, so long as we understand that our values must be tested against fact and experience, so long as we recall that they demand deeds and not just words.
不過，我們仍然心如明鏡。我們不放棄自己的價值觀，即使它們有時黯淡無光、陳舊破碎；我們不放棄自己的價值觀，即使作為一個國家和在我們自己的生命中，我們經常心不在焉地背叛它們。除了它們還有什么指導我們？這些價值觀是我們的傳承，是我們作為一個民族的特征。即使我們意識到它們面臨挑戰，知識分子和文化批評者可以對它們指指戳戳，對它們進行批判，把它們弄個底兒朝天，它們到頭來還是出奇地持久，出奇地永恒，及階級、種族、信念之中，代代相傳。只要我們懂得我們的價值觀必須經得起事實和經驗的考驗，只要我們記得它們需要的是行勝于言，我們就能以它們的名義進行訴求。
To do otherwise would be to relinquish our best selves.
如果不這樣做，我們將放棄最好的自我。
