是什么凝聚起美国人？大地360

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原标题：What Unites Americans?

Americans come from every corner of the globe.
美国人来自全球每一个角落。

We represent every race, every ethnicity, every religion.
我们代表每一个种族，每一个民族，每一个宗教。

So, what unifies us?
那么，是什么凝聚起我们？

Two things.
两样东西。

Values.
价值观。

And history.
还有历史。

History?
历史？

How can history unify us if we come from so many different places?
如果我们来自那么多不同的地方，历史怎么能凝聚起我们呢？

My parents illustrate my point.
我父母能证明我的观点。

They came from India and settled in the rural south. You don’t get much further away from your ethnic origins than that.
他们来自印度，在南部乡村落脚。很难找到比这更远的民族起源了。

Like generations of immigrants before them, my parents, my brother, and I studied the inspiring stories of the Mayflower, the Boston Tea Party, the settling of the West; the personal stories and struggles of great American men and women.
就像他们之前的一代代移民，我父亲、我兄弟，还有我都研习过那些激动人心的故事：五月花号、波士顿茶党、西部开拓；还有伟大美国男男女女的个人故事与奋斗历程。

We fully adopted American history as our own.
我们全然把美国历史当作我们自己的历史。

My friend, Dennis Prager, has a special way of expressing this. He says he has two historical fathers: Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, and George Washington, the father of the American people.
我的朋友丹尼斯·普拉格有一个特别的表达，他说他有两位历史上的父亲：亚伯拉罕，犹太人之父，还有乔治·华盛顿，美国人之父。

My mom still makes a mean curry, my parents still practice their Hindu religion, but they are also as American as apple pie.
我母亲依然做得一手好咖喱，我父母依然奉行他们的印度教信仰，但他们也是实打实的美国派。

That’s because once you’re an American, you’re fully American.
这是因为一旦你成为美国人，你就是完全的美国人。

The new citizen from Armenia, Cambodia, Bolivia, or Nigeria is considered every bit as American as the great, great granddaughter of a Civil War veteran.
来自亚美尼亚、柬埔寨、玻利维亚、尼日利亚的新公民会被当作美国人，像美国内战老兵的曾曾孙女那样的美国人。

They share values and history.
他们有共同的价值观和历史。

It’s hard to imagine a more unifying idea.
很难想象比这更具凝聚力的理念。

And it’s fundamentally, uniquely, and gloriously American.
它也是根本的、独特的、光荣的美国理念。

In a speech before the Civil War, the abolitionist preacher Theodore Parker popularized what he called “the American Idea.” Parker’s recipe combined three ingredients. Only in America did they exist simultaneously.
在美国内战前的一次演讲中，废奴主义传道士西奥多·帕克推广了他所谓的「美国理念」。帕克的配方有三种成分。只有在美国它们才同时存在。

All people are created equal…
人人生而平等……

All possess certain unalienable rights…
都拥有若干不可让渡的权利……

All should have the opportunity to develop their individual talents.
都有机会去发挥他们的个人天赋。

Parker, whose sermons inspired Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, believed in one American set of values, supported by all Americans, and open to all Americans.
帕克的布道启发了亚伯拉罕·林肯和马丁·路德·金，他相信一套美国价值观，受所有美国人支持，对所有美国人开放。

Thanks to Lincoln, King and many others, what Parker envisioned has largely come to pass.
多亏了林肯、金和很多人，帕克的展望已基本实现。

No country has woven more people of different races, backgrounds, and ethnicities more successfully into a single country than America.
没有国家像美国那样成功将如此多不同种族、背景和民族的人民编织进一个国家。

But this tapestry is now being ripped apart at the seams.
但这一织锦如今正被生生撕裂。

America’s founding ideals, once a source of shared pride, are increasingly depicted as a source of shared shame.
美国的建国理念，曾经是共同的荣耀源泉，越来越被描绘成共同的耻辱源泉。

These ideals, it turns out, were just a cover for systemic racism and exploitation.
原来，这些理念不过是系统性种族主义和剥削的幌子。

That is the new narrative from the progressive Left.
这就是进步主义左派的新叙事。

It is being sold to the American public by our educational institutions, our media and now even major corporations.
它正通过我们的教育机构、我们的媒体，甚至是大公司兜售给美国公众。

The consequences of this are obvious and tragic.
它的后果是显而易见且悲惨的。

Imagine a child coming to the United States (or any American-born child, for that matter) and learning that the nation was created not to promote liberty, but to promote the Founders’ slave interests.
想象一个孩子来到美国（抑或是任何美国出生的孩子）得知这个国家的建立不是为了增进自由，而是增进建国者的奴隶利益。

Or that California, Texas, and Arizona were stolen from Mexico.
加州、德州和亚利桑那是从墨西哥手上偷来的。

Or that free markets exploit workers rather than providing them with opportunities for a better life.
自由市场剥削工人而不是为他们提供机会过上更好的生活。

Or a new immigrant being told in an equity, diversity and inclusion seminar that his fellow white employees secretly despise him, even though they seem to treat him well.
或者新移民在一个平等、多元化与包容讲座上听说他的白人同事暗地里鄙视他，即便他们看起来对他不薄。

In short, Parker’s American idea has been turned upside down.
简而言之，帕克的美国理念被完全颠倒了。

Instead of an aspirational society, the Left sees people limited by the circumstances of their birth. If you’re born white, you’re privileged. If you’re born a different color, you’re a victim.
不是因为这是个奋发向上的社会，左派认为人们受限于他们生来的背景。如果你生为白人，你就有特权。如果你生来是不同的肤色，你就是受害者。

The whole idea—and reality—of America was that with hard work, self-discipline, and, of course, a little bit of luck, you could transcend your past and make your own future.
美国理念的根本和现实是，靠着勤勉工作、自律，当然，还有一点点的运气，你就可以超越你的过去，打造你自己的将来。

The Left rejects this. Your group identity defines you. Or to be more precise, pre-defines you.
左派否认这一点。你的群体认同塑造了你。或者更准确地说，预设了你。

Only with the aid of the government can your identity group succeed. As an individual, you’re powerless—unless of course you’re white.
只有靠政府的帮助，你所认同的群体才可能成功。作为个体，你无能无力——当然除非你是白人。

The Left has even changed the way we seek social improvement.
左派甚至改变了我们争取社会改良的方式。

Whereas the abolitionist leaders of the 1850s and the civil rights leaders of the 1950s successfully appealed to America’s conscience to right historical wrongs, today’s Left rejects America’s conscience as inherently corrupt.
尽管 1850 年代的废奴主义领袖和 1950 年代的民权领袖成功唤起美国的良知，纠正历史上的错误，今天的左派否定美国的良知，认为它从根本上腐败了。

And if you don’t fully buy-in to the Left’s plans for a new America, well, be quiet about it. There are real consequences if you’re not.
而如果你不全盘认可左派打造新美国的计划，好吧，不要声张，不然会有严重后果。

Whereas progressives once championed free speech even to such extremes as Americans’ right to burn the flag and publish pornography, they now enforce silence.
尽管进步主义者曾经维护言论自由，即便是极端如美国人焚烧国旗和发布色情作品的权利，他们如今实施禁言。

Assert the biological reality of two sexes, reject apocalyptic environmentalism, or insist that citizens present an ID before they vote, and you run the risk of being banned from social media, the modern equivalent of the town square.
主张两性的生物学现实，拒绝末日论环保主义，或坚持公民在投票前展示身份证明，你就要冒被社交媒体封号的危险，它就像现代版的城市广场。

You might also lose your job and your reputation.
你还可能丢掉你的工作和你的名声。

Is this America’s future?
这是美国的未来吗？

The Left says yes.
左派说没错。

The center-Left, the so-called liberal moderates, are MIA. It’s not clear what they believe.
中左，所谓的自由温和派，「失踪了」，尚不清楚他们的想法。

Conservatives take a different view.
保守派则持不同观点。

We recognize America’s shortcomings but we also see a nation always striving to become a “more perfect union.” We see a nation with more freedom, more opportunity, and more minority protections than any place on earth.
我们承认美国的缺点，但我们同样看到一个国家一直努力成为「更完美的联邦」。我们看到一个比地球上任何地方有更多自由、更多机会、更保护少数派的国家。

That’s what my immigrant parents saw.
这是我的移民父母所看到的。

It’s what their American-born son still sees.
这也是他们美国出生的儿子仍然看到的。

What do you see?
你看到的是什么？

I’m Bobby Jindal for Prager University.
我是鲍比·金达尔，为 PragerU 制作。

好文章，是时候让人们知道这才是真正的美国啊！我爱你美国！我骄傲我是一名亚裔美国人！