美国经典英文演讲一百篇

第一篇：美国经典英文演讲一百篇

美国20世纪经典英语演讲100篇（MP3+文本）

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第二篇：美国经典英文演讲100篇

美国经典英文演讲100篇:Brandenburg Gate Address

时间:2008-6-12 10:19:20 来源:本站原创

作者:echo

(女宇航员选拔标准 | 招聘英语编辑)

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Ronald Reagan

Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate

delivered 12 June 1987, West Berlin

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.(2)]

Thank you.Thank you, very much.Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty four years ago, President John F.Kennedy visited Berlin, and speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall.Well since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn to Berlin.And today, I, myself, make my second visit to your city.We come to Berlin, we American Presidents, because it's our duty to speak in this place of freedom.But I must confess, we’re drawn here by other things as well;by the feeling of history in this city--more than 500 years older than our own nation;by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten;most of all, by your courage and determination.Perhaps the composer, Paul Linke, understood something about American Presidents.You see, like so many Presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: “Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin” [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]

Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America.I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East.To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, I extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American people.To those listening in East Berlin, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me.For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin.[There is only one Berlin.]

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe.From the Baltic South, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers.Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall.But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.Yet, it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly;here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world.Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German separated from his fellow men.Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.President Von Weizsäcker has said, “The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.” Well today--today I say: As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind.Yet, I do not come here to lament.For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their air-raid shelters to find devastation.Thousands of miles away, the people of the United States reached out to help.And in 1947 Secretary of State--as you've been told--George Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan.Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”

In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.I was struck by a sign--the sign on a burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt.I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city.The sign read simply: “The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world.” A strong, free world in the West--that dream became real.Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant.Italy, France, Belgium--virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth;the European Community was founded.In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the Wirtschaftswunder.Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty--that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom.The German leaders--the German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes.From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany: busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland.Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums.Where there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing, automobiles--the wonderful goods of the Kudamm.¹ From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth.Now the Soviets may have had other plans.But my friends, there were a few things the Soviets didn't count on: Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze.[Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.²]

In the 1950s--In the 1950s Khrushchev predicted: “We will bury you.”

But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history.In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food.Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself.After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity.Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace.Freedom is the victor.And now--now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom.We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness.Some political prisoners have been released.Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed.Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness;for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty--the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate.Mr.Gorbachev, open this gate.Mr.Gorbachev--Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent, and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens.To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion.So, we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength.Yet we seek peace;so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.Beginning 10 years ago, the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly SS-20 nuclear missiles capable of striking every capital in Europe.The Western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter-deployment(unless the Soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution)--namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides.For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in earnestness.As the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counter-deployment, there were difficult days, days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city;and the Soviets later walked away from the table.But through it all, the alliance held firm.And I invite those who protested then--I invite those who protest today--to mark this fact: Because we remained strong, the Soviets came back to the table.Because we remained strong, today we have within reach the possibility, not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.As I speak, NATO ministers are meeting in Iceland to review the progress of our proposals for eliminating these weapons.At the talks in Geneva, we have also proposed deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons.And the Western allies have likewise made far-reaching proposals to reduce the danger of conventional war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons.While we pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will maintain the capacity to deter Soviet aggression at any level at which it might occur.And in cooperation with many of our allies, the United States is pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative--research to base deterrence not on the threat of offensive retaliation, but on defenses that truly defend;on systems, in short, that will not target populations, but shield them.By these means we seek to increase the safety of Europe and all the world.But we must remember a crucial fact: East and West do not mistrust each other because we are armed;we are armed because we mistrust each other.And our differences are not about weapons but about liberty.When President Kennedy spoke at the City Hall those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled;Berlin was under siege.And today, despite all the pressures upon this city, Berlin stands secure in its liberty.And freedom itself is transforming the globe.In the Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given a rebirth.Throughout the Pacific, free markets are working miracle after miracle of economic growth.In the industrialized nations, a technological revolution is taking place, a revolution marked by rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications.In Europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of freedom.Yet in this age of redoubled economic growth, of information and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: It must make fundamental changes, or it will become obsolete.Today, thus, represents a moment of hope.We in the West stand ready to cooperate with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safer, freer world.And surely there is no better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a start.Free people of Berlin: Today, as in the past, the United States stands for the strict observance and full implementation of all parts of the Four Power Agreement of 1971.Let us use this occasion, the 750th anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer life for the Berlin of the future.Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the Federal Republic and the Western sectors of Berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement.And I invite Mr.Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the world.To open Berlin still further to all Europe, East and West, let us expand the vital air access to this city, finding ways of making commercial air service to Berlin more convenient, more comfortable, and more economical.We look to the day when West Berlin can become one of the chief aviation hubs in all central Europe.With--With our French--With our French and British partners, the United States is prepared to help bring international meetings to Berlin.It would be only fitting for Berlin to serve as the site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on human rights and arms control, or other issues that call for international cooperation.There is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young minds, and we would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges, cultural events, and other programs for young Berliners from the East.Our French and British friends, I'm certain, will do the same.And it's my hope that an authority can be found in East Berlin to sponsor visits from young people of the Western sectors.One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement, and you may have noted that the Republic of Korea--South Korea--has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 Olympics to take place in the North.International sports competitions of all kinds could take place in both parts of this city.And what better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to offer in some future year to hold the Olympic games here in Berlin, East and West.In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city.You've done so in spite of threats--the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade.Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall.What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage.But I believe there's something deeper, something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel and way of life--not mere sentiment.No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions.Something, instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence, that refuses to release human energies or aspirations, something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says “yes” to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom.In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin--is “love.”

Love both profound and abiding.Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West.The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz.Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind.Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross.There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner(quote):

“This wall will fall.Beliefs become reality.”

Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall, for it cannot withstand faith;it cannot withstand truth.The wall cannot withstand freedom.And I would like, before I close, to say one word.I have read, and I have been questioned since I've been here about certain demonstrations against my coming.And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so.I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they're doing again.Thank you and God bless you all.Thank you.美国经典英文演讲100篇:Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Address

时间:2008-6-12 10:19:08 来源:本站原创

作者:echo

(女宇航员选拔标准 | 招聘英语编辑)

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William Jefferson Clinton

Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Prayer Service Address

delivered 23 April 1995 in Oklahoma City, OK

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.(2)]

Thank you very much, Governor Keating and Mrs.Keating, Reverend Graham, to the families of those who have been lost and wounded, to the people of Oklahoma City, who have endured so much, and the people of this wonderful state, to all of you who are here as our fellow Americans.I am honored to be here today to represent the American people.But I have to tell you that Hillary and I also come as parents, as husband and wife, as people who were your neighbors for some of the best years of our lives.Today our nation joins with you in grief.We mourn with you.We share your hope against hope that some may still survive.We thank all those who have worked so heroically to save lives and to solve this crime--those here in Oklahoma and those who are all across this great land, and many who left their own lives to come here to work hand in hand with you.We pledge to do all we can to help you heal the injured, to rebuild this city, and to bring to justice those who did this evil.This terrible sin took the lives of our American family, innocent children in that building, only because their parents were trying to be good parents as well as good workers;citizens in the building going about their daily business;and many there who served the rest of us--who worked to help the elderly and the disabled, who worked to support our farmers and our veterans, who worked to enforce our laws and to protect us.Let us say clearly, they served us well, and we are grateful.But for so many of you they were also neighbors and friends.You saw them at church or the PTA meetings, at the civic clubs, at the ball park.You know them in ways that all the rest of America could not.And to all the members of the families here present who have suffered loss, though we share your grief, your pain is unimaginable, and we know that.We cannot undo it.That is God's work.Our words seem small beside the loss you have endured.But I found a few I wanted to share today.I've received a lot of letters in these last terrible days.One stood out because it came from a young widow and a mother of three whose own husband was murdered with over 200 other Americans when Pan Am 103 was shot down.Here is what that woman said I should say to you today:

The anger you feel is valid, but you must not allow yourselves to be consumed by it.The hurt you feel must not be allowed to turn into hate, but instead into the search for justice.The loss you feel must not paralyze your own lives.Instead, you must try to pay tribute to your loved ones by continuing to do all the things they left undone, thus ensuring they did not die in vain.Wise words from one who also knows.You have lost too much, but you have not lost everything.And you have certainly not lost America, for we will stand with you for as many tomorrows as it takes.If ever we needed evidence of that, I could only recall the words of Governor and Mrs.Keating: “If anybody thinks that Americans are mostly mean and selfish, they ought to come to Oklahoma.If anybody thinks Americans have lost the capacity for love and caring and courage, they ought to come to Oklahoma.”

To all my fellow Americans beyond this hall, I say, one thing we owe those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to this evil.They are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life.Let us teach our children that the God of comfort is also the God of righteousness: Those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind.¹ Justice will prevail.Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear.When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it.When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it.In the face of death, let us honor life.As St.Paul admonished us, Let us “not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”²

Yesterday, Hillary and I had the privilege of speaking with some children of other federal employees--children like those who were lost here.And one little girl said something we will never forget.She said, “We should all plant a tree in memory of the children.” So this morning before we got on the plane to come here, at the White House, we planted that tree in honor of the children of Oklahoma.It was a dogwood with its wonderful spring flower and its deep, enduring roots.It embodies the lesson of the Psalms--that the life of a good person is like a tree whose leaf does not wither.³

My fellow Americans, a tree takes a long time to grow, and wounds take a long time to heal.But we must begin.Those who are lost now belong to God.Some day we will be with them.But until that happens, their legacy must be our lives.Thank you all, and God bless you.

第三篇：美国经典英文演讲100篇The_Marshall_Plan

美国经典英文演讲100篇:“The Marshall Plan”George C.Marshall

The Marshall Plan

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio.]

Mr.President, Dr.Conant, members of the Board of Overseers, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am profoundly grateful, touched by the great distinction and honor and great compliment accorded me by the authorities of Harvard this morning.I am overwhelmed, as a matter of fact, and I am rather fearful of my inability to maintain such a high rating as you've been generous enough to accord to me.In these historic and lovely surroundings, this perfect day, and this very wonderful assembly, it is a tremendously impressive thing to an individual in my position.But to speak more seriously, I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious.That must be apparent to all intelligent people.I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation.Furthermore, the people of this country are distant from the troubled areas of the earth, and it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and consequent reactions of the long-suffering peoples of Europe and the effect of those

reactions on their governments in connection with our efforts to promote peace in the world.In considering the requirements for the rehabilitation of Europe, the physical loss of life, the visible destruction of cities, factories, mines, and railroads was correctly estimated, but it has become obvious during recent months that this visible destruction was probably less serious than the dislocation of the entire fabric of European economy.For the past ten years conditions have been highly abnormal.The feverish preparation for war and the more feverish maintenance of the war effort engulfed all aspects of

national economies.Machinery has fallen into disrepair or is entirely obsolete.Under the arbitrary and destructive Nazi rule, virtually every possible enterprise was geared into the German war machine.Long-standing commercial ties, private

institutions, banks, insurance companies, and shipping companies disappeared through loss of capital, absorption through nationalization, or by simple destruction.In many countries, confidence in the local currency has been severely shaken.The breakdown of the business structure of Europe during the war was complete.Recovery has been seriously

retarded by the fact that two years after the close of hostilities a peace settlement with Germany and Austria has not been

agreed upon.But even given a more prompt solution of these difficult problems, the rehabilitation of the economic structure of Europe quite evidently will require a much longer time and greater effort than had been foreseen.There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious.The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the city dweller for the other necessities of life.This division of labor is the basis of modern civilization.At the present time it is threatened with breakdown.The town and city industries are not producing adequate goods to exchange with the food-producing farmer.Raw materials and fuel are in short supply.Machinery, as I have said, is lacking or worn out.The farmer or the peasant cannot find the goods for sale which he desires to purchase.So the sale of his farm produce for money which he cannot use seems to him an unprofitable transaction.He, therefore, has withdrawn many fields from crop cultivation and he's using them for grazing.He feeds more grain to stock and finds for himself and his family an ample supply of food, however short he may be on clothing and the other ordinary gadgets of civilization.Meanwhile, people in the cities are short of food and fuel, and in some places approaching the starvation levels.So, the

governments are forced to use their foreign money and credits to procure these necessities abroad.This process exhausts funds which are urgently needed for reconstruction.Thus, a very serious situation is rapidly developing which bodes no good

for the world.The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down.The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products--principally from America--are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political

deterioration of a very grave character.The remedy seems to lie in breaking the vicious circle and

restoring the confidence of the people of Europe in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a whole.The manufacturer and the farmer throughout wide areas must be able and willing to exchange their product for currencies, the continuing value of which is not open to question.Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large and the possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the United States should be apparent to all.It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.Such assistance, I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis, as various crises develop.Any assistance that this Government may render in the future should provide a cure rather than a mere palliative.Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full cooperation, I am sure, on the part of the United States Government.Any government which maneuvers to block the recovery of other countries cannot expect help from us.Furthermore, governments, political parties, or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit there from politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States.It is already evident that before the United States Government can proceed much further in its efforts to alleviate the situation and help start the European world on its way to recovery, there must be some agreement among the countries of Europe as to the requirements of the situation and the part those countries themselves will take in order to give a proper effect to whatever actions might be undertaken by this Government.It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for our Government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically.This is the business of the Europeans.The initiative, I think, must come from Europe.The role of this country should consist of friendly aid in the drafting of a

European program and of later support of such a program so far as it may be practical for us to do so.The program should be a joint one, agreed to by a number, if not all, European nations.An essential part of any successful action on the part of the United States is an understanding on the part of the people of America of the character of the problem and the remedies to be applied.Political passion and prejudice should have no part.With foresight, and a willingness on the part of our people to face up to the vast responsibility which history has clearly

placed upon our country, the difficulties I have outlined can and will be overcome.I am sorry that on each occasion I have said something publicly in regard to our international situation, I have been forced by the necessities of the case to enter into rather technical

discussions.But, to my mind, it is of vast importance that our people reach some general understanding of what the

complications really are, rather than react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment.As I said more formally a moment ago, we are remote from the scene of these troubles.It is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening, or even seeing photographs and motion pictures, to grasp at all the real significance of the situation.And yet the whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment.It hangs, I think, to a large extent on the realization of the American people, of just what are the various

dominant factors.What are the reactions of the people? What are the justifications of those reactions? What are the sufferings? What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done? Thank you very much.

第四篇：美国经典英文演讲100篇1988_DNC_Address

美国经典英文演讲100篇:1988 DNC Address

Take New York, the dynamic metropolis.What makes New York so special? It's the invitation at the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free.” Not restricted to English only.Many people, many cultures, many languages with one thing in common: They yearn to breathe free.Common ground.Tonight in Atlanta, for the first time in this century, we convene in the South;a state where Governors once stood in school house doors;where Julian Bond was denied a seat in the State Legislature because of his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War;a city that, through its five Black Universities, has graduated more black students than any city in the world.Atlanta, now a modern intersection of the New South.Common ground.That's the challenge of our party tonight--left wing, right wing.Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival--not at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival.It takes two wings to fly.Whether you're a hawk or a dove, you're just a bird living in the same environment, in the same world.The Bible teaches that when lions and lambs lie down together, none will be afraid, and there will be peace in the valley.It sounds impossible.Lions eat lambs.Lambs sensibly flee from lions.Yet even lions and lambs find common ground.Why? Because neither lions nor lambs want the forest to catch on fire.Neither lions nor lambs want acid rain to fall.Neither lions nor lambs can survive nuclear war.If lions and lambs can find common ground, surely we can as well--as civilized people.The only time that we win is when we come together.In 1960, John Kennedy, the late John Kennedy, beat Richard Nixon by only 112,000 votes--less than one vote per precinct.He won by the margin of our hope.He brought us together.He reached out.He had the courage to defy his advisors and inquire about Dr.King's jailing in Albany, Georgia.We won by the margin of our hope, inspired by courageous leadership.In 1964, Lyndon Johnson brought both wings together--the thesis, the antithesis, and the creative synthesis--and together we won.In 1976, Jimmy Carter unified us again, and we won.When do we not come together, we never win.In 1968, the division and despair in July led to our defeat in November.In 1980, rancor in the spring and the summer led to Reagan in the fall.When we divide, we cannot win.We must find common ground as the basis for survival and development and change and growth.Today when we debated, differed, deliberated, agreed to agree, agreed to disagree, when we had the good judgment to argue a case and then not self-destruct, George Bush was just a little further away from the White House and a little closer to private life.Tonight, I salute Governor Michael Dukakis.He has run--He has run a well-managed and a dignified campaign.No matter how tired or how tried, he always resisted the temptation to stoop to demagoguery.I've watched a good mind fast at work, with steel nerves, guiding his campaign out of the crowded field without appeal to the worst in us.I've watched his perspective grow as his environment has expanded.I've seen his toughness and tenacity close up.I know his commitment to public service.Mike Dukakis' parents were a doctor and a teacher;my parents a maid, a beautician, and a janitor.There's a great gap between Brookline, Massachusetts and Haney Street in the Fieldcrest Village housing projects in Greenville, South Carolina.He studied law;I studied theology.There are differences of religion, region, and race;differences in experiences and perspectives.But the genius of America is that out of the many we become one.Providence has enabled our paths to intersect.His foreparents came to America on immigrant ships;my foreparents came to

America on slave ships.But whatever the original ships, we're in the same boat tonight.Our ships could pass in the night--if we have a false sense of independence--or they could collide and crash.We would lose our passengers.We can seek a high reality and a greater good.Apart, we can drift on the broken pieces of Reagonomics, satisfy our baser instincts, and exploit the fears of our people.At our highest, we can call upon noble instincts and navigate this vessel to safety.The greater good is the common good.As Jesus said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” It was his way of saying there's a higher good beyond personal comfort or position.The good of our Nation is at stake.It's commitment to working men and women, to the poor and the vulnerable, to the many in the world.With so many guided missiles, and so much misguided leadership, the stakes are exceedingly high.Our choice? Full participation in a democratic government, or more abandonment and neglect.And so this night, we choose not a false sense of independence, not our capacity to survive and endure.Tonight we choose interdependency, and our capacity to act and unite for the greater good.Common good is finding commitment to new priorities to expansion and inclusion.A commitment to expanded participation in the Democratic Party at every level.A commitment to a shared national campaign strategy and involvement at every level.A commitment to new priorities that insure that hope will be kept alive.A common ground commitment to a legislative agenda for empowerment, for the John Conyers bill--universal, on-site, same-day registration everywhere.A commitment to D.C.statehood and empowerment--D.C.deserves statehood.A commitment to economic set-asides, commitment to the

Dellums bill for comprehensive sanctions against South Africa.A shared commitment to a common direction.Common ground.Easier said than done.Where do you find common ground? At the point of challenge.This campaign has shown that politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters and pundits.Politics can be a moral arena where people come together to find common ground.We find common ground at the plant gate that closes on workers without notice.We find common ground at the farm auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans or diminishing markets.Common ground at the school yard where teachers cannot get adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can't make a loan.Common ground at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford to go upstairs to a bed that's empty waiting for someone with insurance to get sick.We are a better nation than that.We must do better.Common ground.What is leadership if not present help in a time of crisis? And so I met you at the point of challenge.In Jay, Maine, where paper workers were striking for fair wages;in Greenville, Iowa, where family farmers struggle for a fair price;in Cleveland, Ohio, where working women seek comparable worth;in McFarland, California, where the children of Hispanic farm workers may be dying from poisoned land, dying in clusters with cancer;in an AIDS hospice in Houston, Texas, where the sick support one another, too often rejected by their own parents and friends.Common ground.America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmamma could not afford a blanket, she didn't complain and we did not freeze.Instead she took pieces of old cloth--patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack--only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with.But they didn't stay that way very long.With

sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture.Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt.Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right--but you cannot stand alone.Your patch is not big enough.Workers, you fight for fair wages, you are right--but your patch labor is not big enough.Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal care on the front side of life, relevant jail care and welfare on the back side of life, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Students, you seek scholarships, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right--but our patch is not big enough.Gays and lesbians, when you fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right--but your patch is not big enough.Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you believe, right wing, left wing, hawk, dove, you are right from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.But don't despair.Be as wise as my grandmamma.Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread.When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation.We, the people, can win.We stand at the end of a long dark night of reaction.We stand tonight united in the commitment to a new direction.For almost eight years we've been led by those who view social good

coming from private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private wealth.They have been prepared to sacrifice the common good of the many to satisfy the private interests and the wealth of a few.We believe in a government that's a tool of our democracy in service to the public, not an instrument of the aristocracy in search of private wealth.We believe in government with the consent of the governed, “of, for and by the people.” We must now emerge into a new day with a new direction.Reaganomics: Based on the belief that the rich had too much money [sic]--too little money and the poor had too much.That's classic Reaganomics.They believe that the poor had too much money and the rich had too little money,-so they engaged in reverse Robin Hood-took from the poor, gave to the rich, paid for by the middle class.We cannot stand four more years of Reaganomics in any version, in any disguise.How do I document that case? Seven years later, the richest 1 percent of our society pays 20 percent less in taxes.The poorest 10 percent pay 20 percent more: Reaganomics.Reagan gave the rich and the powerful a multibillion-dollar party.Now the party is over.He expects the people to pay for the damage.I take this principal position, convention, let us not raise taxes on the poor and the middle-class, but those who had the party, the rich and the powerful, must pay for the party.I just want to take common sense to high places.We're spending one hundred and fifty billion dollars a year defending Europe and Japan 43 years after the war is over.We have more troops in Europe tonight than we had seven years ago.Yet the threat of war is ever more remote.Germany and Japan are now creditor nations;that means they've got a surplus.We are a debtor nation--means we are in debt.Let them share more of the burden of their own defense.Use some of that money to build decent housing.Use some of that money to educate our children.Use some of that money for

long-term health care.Use some of that money to wipe out these slums and put America back to work!I just want to take common sense to high places.If we can bail out Europe and Japan;if we can bail out Continental Bank and Chrysler--and Mr.Iacocca, make [sic] 8,000 dollars an hour--we can bail out the family farmer.I just want to make common sense.It does not make sense to close down six hundred and fifty thousand family farms in this country while importing food from abroad subsidized by the U.S.Government.Let's make sense.It does not make sense to be escorting all our tankers up and down the Persian Gulf paying $2.50 for every one dollar worth of oil we bring out, while oil wells are capped in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.I just want to make sense.Leadership must meet the moral challenge of its day.What's the moral challenge of our day? We have public accommodations.We have the right to vote.We have open housing.What's the fundamental challenge of our day? It is to end economic violence.Plant closings without notice--economic violence.Even the greedy do not profit long from greed--economic violence.Most poor people are not lazy.They are not black.They are not brown.They are mostly White and female and young.But whether White, Black or Brown, a hungry baby's belly turned inside out is the same color--color it pain;color it hurt;color it agony.Most poor people are not on welfare.Some of them are illiterate and can't read the want-ad sections.And when they can, they can't find a job that matches the address.They work hard everyday.I know.I live amongst them.I'm one of them.I know they work.I'm a witness.They catch the early bus.They work every day.They raise other people's children.They work everyday.They clean the streets.They work everyday.They drive dangerous cabs.They work everyday.They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can't get a union contract.They work everyday.No, no, they are not lazy!Someone must defend them because it's right, and they cannot speak for themselves.They work in hospitals.I know they do.They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain.They empty their bedpans.They clean out their commodes.No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day.America, that is not right.We are a better Nation than that.We are a better Nation than that.We need a real war on drugs.You can't “just say no.” It's deeper than that.You can't just get a palm reader or an astrologer.It's more profound than that.We are spending a hundred and fifty billion dollars on drugs a year.We've gone from ignoring it to focusing on the children.Children cannot buy a hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of drugs a year;a few high-profile athletes--athletes are not laundering a hundred and fifty billion dollars a year--bankers are.I met the children in Watts, who, unfortunately, in their despair, their grapes of hope have become raisins of despair, and they're turning on each other and they're self-destructing.But I stayed with them all night long.I wanted to hear their case.They said, “Jesse Jackson, as you challenge us to say no to drugs, you're right;and to not sell them, you're right;and not use these guns, you're right.”(And by the way, the promise of CETA [Comprehensive Employment and Training Act];they displaced CETA--they did not replace CETA.)“We have neither jobs nor houses nor services nor training--no way out.Some of us take drugs as anesthesia for our pain.Some take drugs as a way of pleasure, good short-term pleasure and long-term pain.Some sell drugs to make money.It's wrong, we know, but you need to know that we know.We can go and buy the drugs by the boxes at the port.If we can buy the drugs at the port, don't you believe the Federal government can stop it if they want to?” They say, “We don't have Saturday night specials anymore.” They say, “We buy AK47's and Uzi's, the latest make of weapons.We buy them across the along these boulevards.” You cannot fight a war on drugs unless and until you're going to challenge the bankers and the gun sellers and those who grow them.Don't just focus on the children;let's stop drugs at the level of supply and demand.We must end the scourge on the American Culture.Leadership.What difference will we make? Leadership.Cannot just go along to get along.We must do more than change Presidents.We must change direction.Leadership must face the moral challenge of our day.The nuclear war build-up is irrational.Strong leadership cannot desire to look tough and let that stand in the way of the pursuit of peace.Leadership must reverse the arms race.At least we should pledge no first use.Why? Because first use begets first retaliation.And that's mutual annihilation.That's not a rational way out.No use at all.Let's think it out and not fight it our because it's an unwinnable fight.Why hold a card that you can never drop? Let's give peace a chance.Leadership.We now have this marvelous opportunity to have a breakthrough with the Soviets.Last year 200,000 Americans visited the Soviet Union.There's a chance for joint ventures into space--not Star Wars and war arms escalation but a space defense initiative.Let's build in the space together and demilitarize the heavens.There's a way out.America, let us expand.When Mr.Reagan and Mr.Gorbachev met there was a big meeting.They represented together one-eighth of the human race.Seven-eighths of the human race

was locked out of that room.Most people in the world tonight--half are Asian, one-half of them are Chinese.There are 22 nations in the Middle East.There's Europe;40 million Latin Americans next door to us;the Caribbean;Africa--a half-billion people.Most people in the world today are Yellow or Brown or Black, non-Christian, poor, female, young and don't speak English in the real world.This generation must offer leadership to the real world.We're losing ground in Latin America, Middle East, South Africa because we're not focusing on the real world.That's the real world.We must use basic principles--support international law.We stand the most to gain from it.Support human rights--we believe in that.Support self-determination--we're built on that.Support economic development--you know it's right.Be consistent and gain our moral authority in the world.I challenge you tonight, my friends, let's be bigger and better as a Nation and as a Party.We have basic challenges--freedom in South Africa.We've already agreed as Democrats to declare South Africa to be a terrorist state.But don't just stop there.Get South Africa out of Angola;free Namibia;support the front line states.We must have a new humane human rights consistent policy in Africa.I'm often asked, “Jesse, why do you take on these tough issues? They're not very political.We can't win that way.” If an issue is morally right, it will eventually be political.It may be political and never be right.Fannie Lou Hamer didn't have the most votes in Atlantic City, but her principles have outlasted every delegate who voted to lock her out.Rosa Parks did not have the most votes, but she was morally right.Dr.King didn't have the most votes about the Vietnam War, but he was morally right.If we are principled first, our politics will fall in place.“Jesse, why do you take these big bold initiatives?” A poem by an unknown author went something like this: “We mastered the

air, we conquered the sea, annihilated distance and prolonged life, but we're not wise enough to live on this earth without war and without hate.” As for Jesse Jackson: “I'm tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbor bar.I want to go out where the big ships float, out on the deep where the great ones are.And should my frail craft prove too slight for waves that sweep those billows o'er, I'd rather go down in the stirring fight than drowse to death at the sheltered shore.” We've got to go out, my friends, where the big boats are.And then for our children.Young America, hold your head high now.We can win.We must not lose you to drugs and violence, premature pregnancy, suicide, cynicism, pessimism and despair.We can win.Wherever you are tonight, I challenge you to hope and to dream.Don't submerge your dreams.Exercise above all else, even on drugs, dream of the day you are drug free.Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you will be up on your feet again.You must never stop dreaming.Face reality, yes, but don't stop with the way things are.Dream of things as they ought to be.Dream.Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will help you rise above the pain.Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress, but you keep on dreaming, young America.Dream of peace.Peace is rational and reasonable.War is irrationable [sic] in this age, and unwinnable.Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for a living.Dream of doctors who are concerned more about public health than private wealth.Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship.Dream of preachers who are concerned more about prophecy than profiteering.Dream on the high road with sound values.And then America, as we go forth to September, October, November and then beyond, America must never surrender to a high moral challenge.Do not surrender to drugs.The best drug policy is a “no first use.” Don't surrender with needles and cynicism.Let's have “no first use” on the one hand, or clinics on the other.Never surrender, young America.Go forward.America must never surrender to malnutrition.We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked.We must never surrender.We must go forward.We must never surrender to illiteracy.Invest in our children.Never surrender;and go forward.We must never surrender to inequality.Women cannot compromise ERA or comparable worth.Women are making 60 cents on the dollar to what a man makes.Women cannot buy meat cheaper.Women cannot buy bread cheaper.Women cannot buy milk cheaper.Women deserve to get paid for the work that you do.It's right!And it's fair.Don't surrender, my friends.Those who have AIDS tonight, you deserve our compassion.Even with AIDS you must not surrender.In your wheelchairs.I see you sitting here tonight in those wheelchairs.I've stayed with you.I've reached out to you across our Nation.And don't you give up.I know it's tough sometimes.People look down on you.It took you a little more effort to get here tonight.And no one should look down on you, but sometimes mean people do.The only justification we have for looking down on someone is that we're going to stop and pick them up.But even in your wheelchairs, don't you give up.We cannot forget 50 years ago when our backs were against the wall, Roosevelt was in a wheelchair.I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan and Bush on a horse.Don't you surrender and don't you give up.Don't surrender and don't give up!Why I cannot challenge you this way? “Jesse Jackson, you don't understand my situation.You be on television.You don't

understand.I see you with the big people.You don't understand my situation.” I understand.You see me on TV, but you don't know the me that makes me, me.They wonder, “Why does Jesse run?” because they see me running for the White House.They don't see the house I'm running from.I have a story.I wasn't always on television.Writers were not always outside my door.When I was born late one afternoon, October 8th, in Greenville, South Carolina, no writers asked my mother her name.Nobody chose to write down our address.My mama was not supposed to make it, and I was not supposed to make it.You see, I was born of a teen-age mother, who was born of a teen-age mother.I understand.I know abandonment, and people being mean to you, and saying you're nothing and nobody and can never be anything.I understand.Jesse Jackson is my third name.I'm adopted.When I had no name, my grandmother gave me her name.My name was Jesse Burns 'til I was 12.So I wouldn't have a blank space, she gave me a name to hold me over.I understand when nobody knows your name.I understand when you have no name.I understand.I wasn't born in the hospital.Mama didn't have insurance.I was born in the bed at [the] house.I really do understand.Born in a three-room house, bathroom in the backyard, slop jar by the bed, no hot and cold running water.I understand.Wallpaper used for decoration? No.For a windbreaker.I understand.I'm a working person's person.That's why I understand you whether you're Black or White.I understand work.I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.I had a shovel programmed for my hand.My mother, a working woman.So many of the days she went to work early, with runs in her stockings.She knew better, but she

wore runs in her stockings so that my brother and I could have matching socks and not be laughed at at school.I understand.At 3 o'clock on Thanksgiving Day, we couldn't eat turkey because momma was preparing somebody else's turkey at 3 o'clock.We had to play football to entertain ourselves.And then around 6 o'clock she would get off the Alta Vista bus and we would bring up the leftovers and eat our turkey--leftovers, the carcass, the cranberries--around 8 o'clock at night.I really do understand.Every one of these funny labels they put on you, those of you who are watching this broadcast tonight in the projects, on the corners, I understand.Call you outcast, low down, you can't make it, you're nothing, you're from nobody, subclass, underclass;when you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in nomination.I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me.And it wasn't born in you, and you can make it.Wherever you are tonight, you can make it.Hold your head high;stick your chest out.You can make it.It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes.Don't you surrender!Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith.In the end faith will not disappoint.You must not surrender!You may or may not get there but just know that you're qualified!And you hold on, and hold out!We must never surrender！America will get better and better.Keep hope alive.Keep hope alive!Keep hope alive!On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive!I love you very much.I love you very much.

第五篇：美国经典英文演讲100篇Truth_and_Tolerance_in_America

美国经典英文演讲100篇: “Truth and Tolerance in America”

Edward M.Kennedy Faith, Truth and Tolerance in America.Actually, a number of people in Washington were surprised that I was invited to speak here--and even more surprised when I accepted the invitation.They seem to think that it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a Kennedy to come to the campus of Liberty Baptist College.In honor of our meeting, I have asked Dr.Falwell, as your Chancellor, to permit all the students an extra hour next Saturday night before curfew.And in return, I have promised to watch the Old Time Gospel Hour next Sunday morning.I realize that my visit may be a little controversial.But as many of you have heard, Dr.Falwell recently sent me a membership in the Moral Majority--and I didn't even apply for it.And I wonder if that means that I'm a member in good standing.[Falwell: Somewhat] Somewhat, he says.This is, of course, a nonpolitical speech which is probably best under the circumstances.Since I am not a candidate for President, it would certainly be inappropriate to ask for your support in this election and probably inaccurate to thank you for it in the last one.I have come here to discuss my beliefs about faith and country, tolerance and truth in America.I know we begin with certain disagreements;I strongly suspect that at the end of the evening some of our disagreements will remain.But I also hope that tonight and in the months and years ahead, we will always respect the right of others to differ, that we will never lose sight of our own fallibility, that we will view ourselves with a sense of

perspective and a sense of humor.After all, in the New Testament, even the Disciples had to be taught to look first to the beam in their own eyes, and only then to the mote in their neighbor’s eyes.I am mindful of that counsel.I am an American and a Catholic;I love my country and treasure my faith.But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society.I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it? There are those who do, and their own words testify to their intolerance.For example, because the Moral Majority has worked with members of different denominations, one fundamentalist group has denounced Dr.Falwell for hastening the ecumenical church and for “yoking together with Roman Catholics, Mormons, and others.” I am relieved that Dr.Falwell does not regard that as a sin, and on this issue, he himself has become the target of narrow prejudice.When people agree on public policy, they ought to be able to work together, even while they worship in diverse ways.For truly we are all yoked together as Americans, and the yoke is the happy one of individual freedom and mutual respect.But in saying that, we cannot and should not turn aside from a deeper and more pressing question--which is whether and how religion should influence government.A generation ago, a presidential candidate had to prove his independence of undue religious influence in public life, and he had to do so partly at the insistence of evangelical Protestants.John Kennedy said at that time: “I believe in an America where there is no religious bloc voting of any kind.” Only twenty years later, another candidate was appealing to a[n] evangelical meeting as a religious bloc.Ronald Reagan said to 15 thousand evangelicals at the Roundtable in Dallas: “ I know that you can’t endorse me.I want you to know I endorse you and what you are doing.”

To many Americans, that pledge was a sign and a symbol of a dangerous breakdown in the separation of church and state.Yet this principle, as vital as it is, is not a simplistic and rigid command.Separation of church and state cannot mean an absolute separation between moral principles and political power.The challenge today is to recall the origin of the principle, to define its purpose, and refine its application to the politics of the present.The founders of our nation had long and bitter experience with the state, as both the agent and the adversary of particular religious views.In colonial Maryland, Catholics paid a double land tax, and in Pennsylvania they had to list their names on a public roll--an ominous precursor of the first Nazi laws against the Jews.And Jews in turn faced discrimination in all of the thirteen original Colonies.Massachusetts exiled Roger Williams and his congregation for contending that civil government had no right to enforce the Ten Commandments.Virginia harassed Baptist teachers, and also established a religious test for public service, writing into the law that no “popish followers” could hold any office.But during the Revolution, Catholics, Jews, and Non-Conformists all rallied to the cause and fought valiantly for the American commonwealth--for John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill.” Afterwards, when the Constitution was ratified and then amended, the framers gave freedom for all religion, and from any established religion, the very first place in the Bill of Rights.Indeed the framers themselves professed very different faiths: Washington was an Episcopalian, Jefferson a deist, and Adams a Calvinist.And although he had earlier opposed toleration, John Adams later contributed to the building of Catholic churches, and so did George Washington.Thomas Jefferson said his proudest achievement was not the presidency, or the writing the Declaration of Independence, but drafting the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.He stated the vision of the first Americans and the First Amendment very clearly: “The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.”

The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of religious faith.They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept.But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone’s freedom is at risk.Those who favor censorship should recall that one of the first books ever burned was the first English translation of the Bible.As President Eisenhower warned in 1953, “Don’t join the book burners...the right to say ideas, the right to record them, and the right to have them accessible to others is unquestioned--or this isn’t America.” And if that right is denied, at some future day the torch can be turned against any other book or any other belief.Let us never forget: Today’s Moral Majority could become tomorrow’s persecuted minority.The danger is as great now as when the founders of the nation first saw it.In 1789, their fear was of factional strife among dozens of denominations.Today there are hundreds--and perhaps even thousands of faiths--and millions of Americans who are outside any fold.Pluralism obviously does not and cannot mean that all of them are right;but it does mean that there are areas where government cannot and should not decide what it is wrong to believe, to think, to read, and to do.As Professor Larry Tribe, one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars has written, “Law in a non-theocratic state cannot measure religious truth, nor can the state impose it.“ The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives.The failure of Prohibition proves the futility of such an attempt when a majority or even a substantial minority happens to disagree.Some questions may be inherently individual ones, or people may be sharply divided about whether they are.In such cases, like Prohibition and abortion, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the conscience of the individual, not the coercive power of the state.But there are other questions which are inherently public in nature, which we must decide together as a nation, and where

religion and religious values can and should speak to our common conscience.The issue of nuclear war is a compelling example.It is a moral issue;it will be decided by government, not by each individual;and to give any effect to the moral values of their creed, people of faith must speak directly about public policy.The Catholic bishops and the Reverend Billy Graham have every right to stand for the nuclear freeze, and Dr.Falwell has every right to stand against it.There must be standards for the exercise of such leadership, so that the obligations of belief will not be debased into an opportunity for mere political advantage.But to take a stand at all when a question is both properly public and truly moral is to stand in a long and honored tradition.Many of the great evangelists of the 1800s were in the forefront of the abolitionist movement.In our own time, the Reverend William Sloane Coffin challenged the morality of the war in Vietnam.Pope John XXIII renewed the Gospel’s call to social justice.And Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.who was the greatest prophet of this century, awakened our nation and its conscience to the evil of racial segregation.Their words have blessed our world.And who now wishes they had been silent? Who would bid Pope John Paul [II] to quiet his voice against the oppression in Eastern Europe, the violence in Central America, or the crying needs of the landless, the hungry, and those who are tortured in so many of the dark political prisons of our time? President Kennedy, who said that “no religious body should seek to impose its will,” also urged religious leaders to state their views and give their commitment when the public debate involved ethical issues.In drawing the line between imposed will and essential witness, we keep church and state separate, and at the same time we recognize that the City of God should speak to the civic duties of men and women.There are four tests which draw that line and define the difference.First, we must respect the integrity of religion itself.People of conscience should be careful how they deal in the word of their Lord.In our own history, religion has been falsely invoked to sanction prejudice--even slavery--to condemn labor unions and public spending for the poor.I believe that the prophecy, ”The poor you have always with you” is an indictment, not a commandment.And I respectfully suggest that God has taken no position on the Department of Education--and that a balanced budget constitutional amendment is a matter of economic analysis, and not heavenly appeals.Religious values cannot be excluded from every public issue;but not every public issue involves religious values.And how ironic it is when those very values are denied in the name of religion.For example, we are sometimes told that it is wrong to feed the hungry, but that mission is an explicit mandate given to us in the 25th chapter of Matthew.Second, we must respect the independent judgments of conscience.Those who proclaim moral and religious values can offer counsel, but they should not casually treat a position on a public issue as a test of fealty to faith.Just as I disagree with the Catholic bishops on tuition tax credits--which I oppose--so other Catholics can and do disagree with the hierarchy, on the basis of honest conviction, on the question of the nuclear freeze.Thus, the controversy about the Moral Majority arises not only from its views, but from its name--which, in the minds of many, seems to imply that only one set of public policies is moral and only one majority can possibly be right.Similarly, people are and should be perplexed when the religious lobbying group Christian Voice publishes a morality index of congressional voting records, which judges the morality of senators by their attitude toward Zimbabwe and Taiwan.Let me offer another illustration.Dr.Falwell has written--and I quote: “To stand against Israel is to stand against God.” Now

there is no one in the Senate who has stood more firmly for Israel than I have.Yet, I do not doubt the faith of those on the other side.Their error is not one of religion, but of policy.And I hope to be able to persuade them that they are wrong in terms of both America’s interest and the justice of Israel’s cause.Respect for conscience is most in jeopardy, and the harmony of our diverse society is most at risk, when we re-establish, directly or indirectly, a religious test for public office.That relic of the colonial era, which is specifically prohibited in the Constitution, has reappeared in recent years.After the last election, the Reverend James Robison warned President Reagan no to surround himself, as president before him had, “with the counsel of the ungodly.” I utterly reject any such standard for any position anywhere in public service.Two centuries ago, the victims were Catholics and Jews.In the 1980s the victims could be atheists;in some other day or decade, they could be the members of the Thomas Road Baptist Church.Indeed, in 1976 I regarded it as unworthy and un-American when some people said or hinted that Jimmy Carter should not be president because he was a born again Christian.We must never judge the fitness of individuals to govern on the bas[is] of where they worship, whether they follow Christ or Moses, whether they are called “born again” or “ungodly.” Where it is right to apply moral values to public life, let all of us avoid the temptation to be self-righteous and absolutely certain of ourselves.And if that temptation ever comes, let us recall Winston Churchill’s humbling description of an intolerant and inflexible colleague: “There but for the grace of God goes God.”

Third, in applying religious values, we must respect the integrity of public debate.In that debate, faith is no substitute for facts.Critics may oppose the nuclear freeze for what they regard as moral reasons.They have every right to argue that any negotiation with the Soviets is wrong, or that any accommodation with them sanctions their crimes, or that no agreement can be good enough and therefore all agreements only increase the chance of war.I do not believe that, but it surely does not violate the

standard of fair public debate to say it.What does violate that standard, what the opponents of the nuclear freeze have no right to do, is to assume that they are infallible, and so any argument against the freeze will do, whether it is false or true.The nuclear freeze proposal is not unilateral, but bilateral--with equal restraints on the United States and the Soviet Union.The nuclear freeze does not require that we trust the Russians, but demands full and effective verification.The nuclear freeze does not concede a Soviet lead in nuclear weapons, but recognizes that human beings in each great power already have in their fallible hands the overwhelming capacity to remake into a pile of radioactive rubble the earth which God has made.There is no morality in the mushroom cloud.The black rain of nuclear ashes will fall alike on the just and the unjust.And then it will be too late to wish that we had done the real work of this atomic age--which is to seek a world that is neither red nor dead.I am perfectly prepared to debate the nuclear freeze on policy grounds, or moral ones.But we should not be forced to discuss phantom issues or false charges.They only deflect us form the urgent task of deciding how best to prevent a planet divided from becoming a planet destroyed.And it does not advance the debate to contend that the arms race is more divine punishment than human problem, or that in any event, the final days are near.As Pope John said two decades ago, at the opening of the Second Vatican Council: “We must beware of those who burn with zeal, but are not endowed with much sense...we must disagree with the prophets of doom, who are always forecasting disasters, as though the end of the earth was at hand.” The message which echoes across the years is very clear: The earth is still here;and if we wish to keep it, a prophecy of doom is no alternative to a policy of arms control.Fourth, and finally, we must respect the motives of those who exercise their right to disagree.We sorely test our ability to live together if we readily question each other’s integrity.It may be harder to restrain our feelings when moral principles are at stake, for they go to the deepest wellsprings of our being.But the more our feelings diverge, the more deeply felt they are, the greater is our obligation to grant the sincerity and essential decency of our fellow citizens on the other side.Those who favor E.R.A [Equal Rights Amendment] are not “antifamily” or “blasphemers.” And their purpose is not “an attack on the Bible.” Rather, we believe this is the best way to fix in our national firmament the ideal that not only all men, but all people are created equal.Indeed, my mother, who strongly favors E.R.A., would be surprised to hear that she is anti-family.For my part, I think of the amendment’s opponents as wrong on the issue, but not as lacking in moral character I could multiply the instances of name-calling, sometimes on both sides.Dr.Falwell is not a “warmonger.” And “liberal clergymen” are not, as the Moral Majority suggested in a recent letter, equivalent to “Soviet sympathizers.” The critics of official prayer in public schools are not “Pharisees”;many of them are both civil libertarians and believers, who think that families should pray more at home with their children, and attend church and synagogue more faithfully.And people are not sexist because they stand against abortion, and they are not murderers because they believe in free choice.Nor does it help anyone’s cause to shout such epithets, or to try and shout a speaker down--which is what happened last April when Dr.Falwell was hissed and heckled at Harvard.So I am doubly grateful for your courtesy here this evening.That was not Harvard’s finest hour, but I am happy to say that the loudest applause from the Harvard audience came in defense of Dr.Falwell’s right to speak.In short, I hope for an America where neither ”fundamentalist“ nor ”humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls.I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt--or religious belief.I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern Inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division.I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.Twenty years ago this fall, in New York City, President Kennedy met for the last time with a Protestant assembly.The atmosphere had been transformed since his earlier address during the 1960 campaign to the Houston Ministerial Association.He had spoken there to allay suspicions about his Catholicism, and to answer those who claimed that on the day of his baptism, he was somehow disqualified from becoming President.His speech in Houston and then his election drove that prejudice from the center of our national life.Now, three years later, in November of 1963, he was appearing before the Protestant Council of New York City to reaffirm what he regarded as some fundamental truths.On that occasion, John Kennedy said: “The family of man is not limited to a single race or religion, to a single city, or country...the family of man is nearly 3 billion strong.Most of its members are not white and most of them are not Christian.” And as President Kennedy reflected on that reality, he restated an ideal for which he had lived his life--that “the members of this family should be at peace with one another.”

That ideal shines across all the generations of our history and all the ages of our faith, carrying with it the most ancient dream.For as the Apostle Paul wrote long ago in Romans: “If it be possible, as much as it lieth in you, live peaceable with all men.” I believe it is possible;the choice lies within us;as fellow citizens, let us live peaceable with each other;as fellow human