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Franklin was deeply, deeply distressed by what he saw. In Ireland he saw how England had put a stranglehold on Irish trade, how absentee English landlords exploited Irish tenant farmers and how those farmers in Franklin's words "lived in wretched hovels of mud and straw, were clothed in rags and subsisted chiefly on potatoes." Not exactly the American dream...
富蘭克林對自己的所見所聞深感憂慮。在愛爾蘭，他看到了英格蘭如何控制愛爾蘭貿易，英格蘭的地主如何剝削愛爾蘭的佃農，以及那些農夫，用富蘭克林的話說，“住在令人作嘔的泥草棚里，衣衫襤褸，以土豆維持生計”。這絕不是美國夢……
So instead of Ireland becoming a model for America, America became a model for Ireland in our own struggle for independence. And when the potatoes ran out, millions of Irish men, women and children packed their bags, got on a boat and showed up right here. And we're still doing it. We're not even starving anymore, loads of potatoes. In fact if there's any Irish out there, I've--I've breaking news from Dublin, the potato famine is over you can come home now. Sorry. But why are we still showing up? Because we love the idea of America.
所以，愛爾蘭沒有成為美國的榜樣，反而在我們爭取獨立的斗爭中，美國成了愛爾蘭的榜樣。當出現土豆饑荒時，成千上萬的愛爾蘭男女老少收拾起行囊，乘船來到美國。如今，仍有愛爾蘭人涌入美國，雖然我們已經不再挨餓，我們有了大量的土豆。事實上，如果這里有愛爾蘭的人，我要帶給你們來自都柏林的新聞，土豆饑荒已經過去了，你們現在可以回家了。但是，我們為什么還會出現在這里呢？因為我們崇尚美國的信念。
We love the crackle and the hustle. We love the spirit that gives the finger to fate, the spirit that says there's no hurdle we can't clear and no problem we can't fix. (sound of helicopter) Uh, oh, here comes the Brits. Only joking. Yeah, no problem we can't fix. So what's the problem that we want to apply all this energy and intellect to?
我們熱愛這里的人潮涌動，我們熱愛挑戰命運的精神，我們熱愛這種沒有不能逾越的障礙、沒有不能解決的問題的精神。（直升機的聲音響起）哦，英國人也來了。開個玩笑啊！沒有問題我們不能解決。那么，我們應該把我們的精力和智慧用在哪里呢？
