ATaleofTwoCities

1、范文最新推薦A Tale of Two Citiesmario cuomo: a tale of two citieson behalf of the empire state and the family of new york,i tha nk you for the great privilege of being able to addressthis convention. please allow me to skip the stories and the poetry and the temptation to deal in nice but vague rhetoric.l

2、et me in stead use this valuableopport unityto dealimmediately with questions that should determine this election and that we all know are vital to the american people.ten days ago, preside nt reaga n admitted that although some people in this country seemedto be doing well nowadays, others were un

3、happy, eve n worried, about themselves, their families and their futures. the preside nt said that he did n& #39;t un dersta nd that fear. he said, why, this country is a shining city on a hill. and the preside nt is right. in man yways we are a shi ning city on a hill.but the hard truth is that not

4、 every one is shari ng in thiscit y& #39;s sple ndor and glory. a shi ning city is perhaps allthe preside nt sees from the portico of the white house and the vera nda of his ran ch, where every one seems to be doing well.but there's ano ther city; there's ano ther part to theshining the city

5、; the part where somepeople can't pay theirmortgages, and most young people can& #39;t afford one, wherestude ntscan& #39;taffordtheeducati ontheyn eed, andmiddle-classpare ntswatchthedreams theyholdfor theirchildre n evaporate.in this part of thecity thereare more poor tha never, morefamilies i

6、n trouble, more and more people who n eed help butcan& #39;t find it. eve n worse: there are elderly people who tremble in the baseme nts of the houses there. and there are people who sleep in the city streets, in the gutter, where the glitterdoesn't show. there are ghettos where thousands ofyou

7、ng people, without a job or an educati on, give their livesaway to drug dealers every day. there is despair, mr. preside nt, in the faces that you don& #39;t see, in the places that youdon& #39;t visit in your shi ning city.in fact, mr. preside nt, this is a n ati on -. mr. preside ntyou ought to kn

8、ow that this nation is more a tale of two cities tha n it is just a shi ning city on a hill.maybe, maybe, mr. preside nt,if you visited somemore places.maybe if you went to appalachia where some people still live in sheds, maybe if you went to lackawa nna where thousa nds ofunemployed steel workers

9、wonder why we subsidized foreign steel. maybe, maybe, mr. preside nt,if you stopped in at a shelter inChicago and spoke to the homeless there; maybe, mr. preside nt, if you asked a woma n who had bee n denied the help she n eeded to feed her children because you said you needed the money for a tax b

10、reak for a millionaireor for a missile we couldn'tafford to use.maybe, maybe, mr. preside nt. but i& #39;m afraid not.because, the truth is, ladies and gen tleme n, that this ishow we were warned it would be. preside nt reaga n told us from very the beg inning that he believed in a kind of socia

11、l darwinism. survival of the fittest. government can't do everythi ng, we were told. so it should settle for tak ing care of the strong and hope that economic ambition and charity will do the rest. make the rich richer - and what falls from their table will be eno ugh for the middle class and th

12、ose who are trying desperately to work their way into the middle class.you know, the republicans called it trickle-downwhenhoovertried it. now they call it supply side. but it's the same shi ning city for those relative few whoare lucky eno ugh to live in its good neighborhoods. but for the peop

13、le who are excluded -for the people who are locked out - all they can do is to stare from a dista nee at that cit y& #39;s glimmeri ng towers.it's an old story. it 's as old as our history. the differe nee betwee n democrats and republica ns has always bee n measured in courage and con fide

14、nee. the republica ns believe that the wago n train will not make it to the fron tier uni ess some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behi nd by the side of the trail. the strong, the strong they tell us will in herit the land.we democrats believe in something else. we democrat

15、s believe that we can make it all the way with the whole family in tact. and, we have more tha n on ce. ever since fran kli n roosevelt lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its kn ees - wago n train after wag on train - to new fron tiers of education, housing, peace; the whole

16、 family aboard, constantly reachi ng out to exte nd and enl arge that family; lifti ng them up into the wagon on the way; blacks and hispanics, and people of every ethnic group, and native americans - all those struggli ng to build their families and claim some small share of america.for n early 50

17、years we carried them all to new levels of comfort, and security, and dignity,even affluenee.and remember this, some of us in this room today are here only because this n atio n had that kind of con fide nee. and it would be wrong to forget that.so, here we are at this convention to remind ourselves

18、 where we come from and to claim the future for ourselves and for our childre n. today our great democratic party, which has saved this n ati on from depressi on, from fascism, from racism, from corruption, is called upon to do it again - this time to save the nation from confusion and division, fro

19、m the threat of eventual fiscal disaster, and most of all from the fear of a nu clear holocaust.that's not going to be easy. moudall is exactly right, it's not going to be easy. in order to succeed, we must answer our opponent's polished and appealing rhetoric with a more telli ng reas o

20、n able ness and rati on ality.we must win this case on the merits. wemust get the american public to look past the glitter, bey ond the showma nship - to reality, to the hard substance of things. and we will do that not so muchwith speeches that sound good as with speeches that are good and sound. n

21、ot so much with speeches that will bring people to their feet as with speeches that bring people to their sen ses. we must make the america n people hear our tale of two cities. we must convince them that we don't have to settle for two cities, that we can have one city, in divisible, shi ning f

22、or all of its people.now we will have no cha nee to do that if what comes out ofthis conven ti on is a babel of arguing voices. if that 's what 's heard throughout the campaig n - disside nt voices from all sides - we will have no cha nee to tell our message.to succeed we willhave to surrend

23、er small parts of ourin dividual in terests,to build a platform we can all sta nd on,at on ce, comfortably - proudly si ngi ng out the truth for the n ati on to hear, i n chorus, its logic so clear and comma nding that no slick commercial, no amount of geni ality, no martial music will be able to mu

24、ffle the sound of the truth. we democrats must un ite.we democrats must unite so that the entire nation can unite because surely the republica ns won& #39;t bring this country together. their policies divide the nation - into the lucky and the left-out,in to the royalty and the rabble. the republica

25、 nsare willi ng to treat that divisio n as victory. they would cut this n ati on in half, in to those temporarily better off and those worse off than before,and they would call that divisionrecovery.we should not, we should not be embarrassed or dismayed orchagri ned if the process of unifyingis dif

26、ficult,eve nwren chi ng at times. remember that, un like any other party, we embrace men and women of every color,every creed,everyorientation, every economic class. in our family are gathered every one from the abject poor of essex county in new york, to the enlightened affluentof the gold coasts a

27、t both ends of thenation. and in between is the heart of our constituency. the middle class - the people not rich eno ugh to be worry-free, but not poor eno ugh to be on welfare. the middle class, those people who work for a living because they have to, not because somepsychiatrist told them it was

28、a convenient way to fill the interval between birth and eternity. white collar and bluecollar. young professi on als. men and wome n in small bus in ess desperate for the capital and con tracts that they n eed to prove their worth.we speak for the min orities who have not yet en tered themainstream.

29、 we speak for ethnics who want to add their culture to the magnificent mosaic that is america. we speak, we speak for wome n who are in dig nant that this n atio n refuses to etchinto its gover nmen tai comma ndme nts the simple rule thou shaltnot sin aga inst equality, a rule so simple - i was goin

30、g to say, and i perhaps dare not but i will, it'sa commandmentso simple it can be spelled in three letters - e.r.a.!wespeak for young people demanding an education and a future. we speak for senior citizens whoare terrorized by the idea that their only security - their social security - is being

31、 threatened. we speak for millionsof reasoning people fightingto preserve our environment from greed and from stupidity. and we speak for reas on able people whoare fight ing to preserve our very existenee from a macho intransigeneethat refuses to makein tellige nt attempts to discuss the possibilit

32、y of nu clear holocaust with our en emy. they refuse. they refuse, because they believe we can pile missiles so high that they will pierce the clouds and the sight of them will frightenour enemies intosubmissi on.now we're proud of this diversity as democrats. we're grateful for it. we don&#

33、39;t have to manufacture it the way the republicans will next month in dallas, by propping up mannequin delegates on the convention floor. but while we're proud of this diversity as democrats, we pay a price for it. the differe nt people that we represe nt have differe ntpoints of view. and some

34、times they compete and even debate, and even argue. that's what our primaries were all about. but now the primaries are over and it is time when we pick our can didates and our platform here to lock arms and movei nto this campaign together. if you need any more inspiration to put some small par

35、tofyourown differences aside tocreate thisconsensus,allyouneed to do isto reflecton what therepublica n policy of divide and cajole has done to this land since 1980.nowwe must makethe american people understand this deficit because they don't. the president's deficit is a direct and dramatic

36、 repudiatio n of his promise to bala nee our budget by 1983. how large is it? the deficit is the largest in the history of this uni verse; preside nt carter's last budget had a deficit of less than one-third of this deficit. it is a deficit that,according to the president'sown fiscaladviser,

37、 may grow as high as $300 billio n a year for as far as the eye can see.and, ladies and gentlemen, it is a debt so large that as much as on e-half of our reve nue from the in come tax goes just to pay the interest. it is a mortgage on our children's future that can be paid only in pain and that

38、could bring this n ati on toits kn ees.now don& #39;t take my word for it - i& #39;m a democrat.ask the republica n inv estme nt ban kers on wall street whatthey thi nk the cha nces of this recovery being perma nent are.you see, if the y& #39;re not too embarrassed to tell you the truth, the y& #39;

39、ll say that they are appalled and frighte ned by the president's deficit. ask them what they think of our economy, now that it has been driven by the distorted value of the dollar back to its col on ial con diti on - now we're exportingagricultural products and importingmanufacturedones. ask

40、 those republican investment bankers what they expect the rate of in terest to be a year from now. and ask them, ifthey dare tell you the truth you will hear from them, what they predict for the inflation rate a year from now, because of the deficit.now, how importa nt is this questi on of the defic

41、it.think about it practically:what chanee would the republicancan didate have had in 1980 if he had told the america n people that he intended to pay for his so-called economic recovery with bankruptcies,unemployment, more homeless, more hungry and thelargest gover nment debt known to huma nkind? wo

42、uld america nvoters have signed the loan certificate for him on election day? of course not! that was an election won under false pretenses. it was won with smoke and mirrors and illusions.and that'sthe kind of recovery we have now as well.and what about foreign policy? they said that they would

43、 make us and the whole world safer. they say they have. by creati ng the largest defe nse budget in history, one that eve n they now admit is excessive. by escalating to a frenzy the nuclear arms race. by incendiary rhetoric. by refusing to discuss peace with our en emies. by the loss of 279 young a

44、merica ns in leba non in pursuit of a plan and a policy that no one can find or describe.we give moneyto latin american governments that murder nuns, and the n we lie about it. we have bee n less tha n zealous in support of our only real friend, it seems to me, we have in the middle east, the one de

45、mocracy there, our flesh and blood ally, the state of israel. our foreign policy drifts with no real directi on, other tha n an hysterical commitme nt to an arms race that leads no where - if we're lucky. and if we're not, it could lead us into bankruptcy or war.of course we must have a stro

46、ng defe nse!of course democrats are for a strong defe nse. of coursedemocrats believe that there are times whe n we must sta nd and fight. and we have.thousands of us have paid for freedom withour lives. but always - whe n this country has bee n at its best -our purposes were clear. now they're

47、not. now our allies are as con fused as our en emies. now we have no real commitme nt to our friends or to our ideals - not to huma n rights, not to the refuse ni ks, not to sakharov, not to bishop tutu and the others struggli ng for freedom in south africa.we have in the last few years spent more t

48、han we can afford. we have pounded our chests and madebold speeches. but we lost 279 young americans in lebanon and we live behind sand bags in washington. how can anyone say that we are stronger, safer, or better?that is the republica n record.that its disastrous quality is not more fully understoo

49、d by the american people i can only attribute to the president's amiability and the failure by someto separate the salesman from the product.and, now it& #39;s up to us. now it& #39;s now up to you and me to make the case to america. and to remind america ns that if they are not happy with all t

50、he preside nt has done so far,they should consider how much worse it will be if he is leftto his radical proclivities for another four years unrestrained. un restra in ed.if july brings back ann gorsuch burford - what can we expect of december? where would another four years take us? where would fou

51、r years more take us? how much larger will the deficit be? how muchdeeper the cuts in programs for the strugglingmiddleclass and the poor to limit that deficit? how high will the interestrates be? how muchmore acid rain killing our forestsand fouli ng our lakes? an d, ladies and gen tleme n, the n a

52、ti on must thi nk of this: what kind of supreme court will we have? we must ask ourselves what kind of court and country will be fashi oned by the manwho believes in hav ing gover nment man date people 's religi on and morality?the manwho believes that trees pollute the environment, the man that

53、 believes that the laws aga inst discrimi natio naga instpeople go too far. the man who threate ns social security and medicaid and help for the disabled. how high will we pile the missiles? how much deeper will the gulf be betwee n us and our enemies? and, ladies and gentlemen, will four years more

54、 make mea ner the spirit of the america n people?this election will measure the record of the past four years.but more tha n that, it will an swer the questi on of what kind of people we want to be.we democrats still have a dream. we still believe in this n ati on& #39;s future. and this is our an s

55、wer to the questi on, this is our credo:we believe in on ly the gover nment we n eed but we in sist onall the government weneed. we believe in a government that ischaracterized by fair ness and reas on able ness, a reas on able ness that goes bey ond labels, that does n& #39;t distort or promise thi

56、ngs that we know we can't do.we believe in a government strong eno ugh to use the words love and compassi on and smart eno ugh to convert our n oblest aspiratio nsinto practicalrealities. we believe in encouraging the talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest maybe a good worki

57、ng descriptionof the process of evolution,a government of humansshould elevate itself to a higher order.our government should be able to rise to the level to where it can fill the gaps left by cha nee or a wisdom we don& #39;tfully un dersta nd. we would rather have laws writte n by thepatr on of th

58、is great city, the man called the world 's mostsin cere democrat - st. fran cis of assisi - tha n laws writte nby darw in.we believe, we believe as democrats, that a society as blessed as ours, the most affluentdemocracy in the world'shistory, one that can spend trillionson instrumentsofdestruction, ought to be able to help the middle class in its struggle, ought to be able to find work for all who can do it, room at the table, shelter for the homeless, care for the elderly and in firm,and hope for the destitute. and we proclaimas loudly as we can t