|
羅伯特‧F‧甘迺迪
(ROBERT F. KENNEDY)
關於小馬丁‧路德‧金之死
On the Death of Martin Luther King,
Jr.
我們需要的……不是分裂……不是仇恨……不是非暴力行動……而是愛和明智，互相同情。
1968年4月4日，小馬丁‧路德‧金博士在孟菲斯遇刺。那天晚上，羅伯特‧甘迺迪預定要在印地安那波利斯市一個貧窮的黑人區為他爭取民主黨總統候選人提名的競選運動發表演說。警察告誡甘迺迪當晚不宜去演講，因為他們不能保證他的安全。當他到達那個地區時，他發現聽眾尚未聽說金的遇害。他當晚的即席講話回顧了一名狙擊手的子彈奪去他兄弟的生命後他個人的巨創深痛。
三個月後，1968年6月4日，甘迺迪慶祝在重要的加州初選中旗開得勝。那天晚上他在洛杉磯大使飯店向他的擁護者們演說時，似乎正邁向民主黨提名的目標。羅伯特‧甘迺迪穿過一間廚房的過道離開飯店，被一名心懷怨恨的巴勒斯坦移民開槍擊中，兩天後死去。
我有一則不幸的消息要告訴你們，告訴我們全體同胞，告訴全世界愛好和平的人民，那就是馬丁‧路德‧金遇刺身亡。
馬丁‧路德‧金為他的同胞們把自己的一生獻給愛，獻給正義，他因為作出這種努力被害。
在這艱難的一天，在這對美國而言艱難的時刻，問一問我們是怎樣一個民族，我們要走向何方，或許不無稗益。對於你們中的黑人──考慮到現場的證據，顯然白人須對金的遇刺負責──你們可能義憤填膺，滿腔仇恨，亟欲復仇。我們作為一個國家可能朝那個方向走，即兩極分化──黑人和白人互相隔絕，互相仇視。
或者我們能夠，正如馬丁‧路德‧金所做的，互相理解，用同一種以愛心和同情去理解的努力取代那種暴力行為，取代已染遍我們國土的斑斑血跡。
對於你們中那些由這一非正義行動導致對全體白人充滿仇恨和懷疑的黑人，我只能說我內心懷著同樣的情感。我有一位家庭成員被害，但他是被一個白人殺害的。然而我們必須做出努力，必須在美國作出努力，我們必須努力去理解，努力度過這十分艱難的時期。
我最喜愛的詩人是埃斯庫羅斯。他寫道：「在我們的睡夢中，不能忘懷的痛苦一點一滴地落在心頭，直到我們在自己的絕望中，明智違背我們的意願受上帝莊嚴的感召來臨。」
在美國我們需要的不是分裂；在美國我們需要的不是仇恨；在美國我們需要的不是非暴力行動或無法無天，而是愛和明智，互相同情，以及對那些仍在我國受苦受難的白人或黑人的正義的感情。
所以今晚我將請求你們回家為馬丁‧路德‧金的家人祈禱，理應如此，但更重要的是為我們自己的國家，為我們大家熱愛的國家祈禱──為理解和我方才提到的同情祈禱。
我們在這個國家能夠做得很好。我們將會有艱難的時期。我們以前曾有過艱難的時期。我們將來還會有艱難的時期。這不是暴力的結束；這不是非法行為的結束；這不是混亂的結束。
但是這個國家白人的大多數和黑人的大多數要求共同生活，要求改善我們的生活水平，要求對這片國土上的全體居民給予公正。
讓我們為實現希臘人多少年前寫下的這句箴言獻出全部力量：馴服人的野性，使這個世界的生活變得溫和宜人。
讓我們為此獻出一切，並且為我們的國家和我們的人民祈禱。
附註：
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.
|