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BY JOE KENNEDY III
乔·肯尼迪三世
I wish it were easy to change human nature. Fear motivates, but hope does too. One person who regularly activates that idea is John Lewis, representative for Georgia, our most optimistic member of Congress. There is not an elected official who has been let down more often by people than he has—people who should know better and have his best interests at heart. He’s been arrested over 40 times and beaten and nearly killed. Yet he has lived, seen, fought and bled for the ability of the United States to change and become a more perfect union. There is value in that fight and pursuit.
我希望改变人性是件容易的事。恐惧是动力，希望也是。我们最乐观的国会议员乔治亚州代表约翰·刘易斯经常提出这个想法。没有一个民选官员比他更经常让人民失望——人民应该更了解他，将其最大利益放在心上。他被逮捕40多次，被殴打，差点被杀。然而，他为美国的改变和成为一个更完美的联邦而生活、见证、战斗和流血。奋斗和追求是有价值的。
Lewis was at a memorial service for the Mother Emanuel church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, listening to family members who had lost loved ones speak, and he got up and talked about forgiveness. He said that our nation had learned to forgive, and he told a story about how, when he was 21, he was beaten by Ku Klux Klan members in South Carolina. Years later, a man came into his congressional office with his son and asked for him. He said that he was one of the members of the Klan who had beaten him, and that he had come with his child to apologize. They hugged, and both cried.
路易斯当时在南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿的伊曼纽尔母亲教堂枪击案的追悼会上，听着失去亲人之人的讲话，他站起来，谈论着宽恕。他说，我们国家已经学会了宽恕，他还讲述了他21岁时如何在南卡罗来纳州被三K党成员击败的故事。数年后，一个男人带着儿子来到国会办公室，要求见他。他说，这是殴打他的三K党成员之一，他带着孩子前来道歉。他们拥抱并垂泪。
To continue to get up and fight and to always say, “Hello, brother,” the way he does, shows that we are human, we are fallible and we make mistakes. We have the capacity to resist fear and be strong. We as individuals have a choice to make, and our country’s history shows that in those real times of crisis, we do try to be big and bold. When our Founding Fathers wrote that all men were equal, they meant rich, white Protestant men. We have worked to expand that. To help people like the poor migrants who come here seeking a better life, as my family did when we first got here.
为继续站起来战斗，他总说，“你好，兄弟，” 他的方式，表明我们是人，我们容易犯错，我们会犯错误。我们有能力抵抗恐惧，变得坚强。我们每个人都有自己的选择，我们国家的历史表明，在那些真正的危机时刻，我们确实努力做大、更勇敢。当我们的开国元勋写道，所有人都是平等的，他们指的是富有的白人新教徒。
When faced with someone speaking out of fear, call it out. Speak up. Ask the fundamental question, “Why do you feel that way?” Listen to those answers to expose the fallacy of their argument, so that you can address that underlying fear. If people are willing to have an honest conversation around, say, immigration, they might say, “We can’t afford it,” or “It’s going to displace us.” Those are statements you can engage in. Be tenacious enough to not let the argument die.
当碰到某人因害怕而说话时，大声说出来。说出来。问最基本的问题，“你为什么这么想？”听那些答案，揭露他们论点的谬误，这样你就能消除潜在的恐惧。如果人们愿意坦诚地谈论移民问题，他们可能会说，“我们买不起，”或者“它会取代我们。”这些都是你可以参与的陈述。要足够坚韧，不要让争论消失。
Countering alternative realities with facts is hard. But it isn’t any harder than it was for African-Americans in the civil rights movement or for the women who fought for suffrage.
用事实处理不同情况的现实是困难的。但这并不比民权运动中的非裔美国人或争取选举权的妇女的处境更难。
The grandson of Robert F. Kennedy is a lawyer and has been the U.S. representative for Massachusetts’s 4th Congressional District since 2013.
罗伯特·F·肯尼迪的孙子是一名律师，自2013年以来一直担任马萨诸塞州第四国会选区的美国众议员。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
