美国国家公共电台 NPR--On this July 4th, what does equality mean?

On this July 4th, what does equality mean?

Transcript¹

Two Pulitzer Prize-winning historians discuss the history of the Declaration of Independence and the founding principle, "All men are created equal."

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Today, we are updating an NPR Independence Day tradition, the reading of the Declaration of Independence.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

BOB EDWARDS: (Reading) When in the course of human events...

INSKEEP: Since 1988, NPR staff members have read aloud the document that proclaimed the start of the United States.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

COKIE ROBERTS: (Reading) We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America...

INSKEEP: The voices have ranged from the late Cokie Roberts to one of our newest program hosts, Ayesha Rascoe, who read one of the many complaints against Britain's King George.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE²: (Reading) He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction³ foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws.

INSKEEP: But that founding document has never been the whole story. So on this July Fourth, we hear some of the ways Americans have used the declaration since 1776. One sentence above all remains⁴ relevant.

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: (Reading) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

INSKEEP: Thomas Jefferson and other founders⁵ wrote those words, and the country has spent 246 years debating what they mean, especially the line that all men are created equal, words the founders were not exactly living by. Historian Annette Gordon-Reed wrote a book about the children Jefferson fathered with Sally Hemings, one of the people enslaved on his Virginia farm.

What made Jefferson want there to be equality in the document at all?

ANNETTE GORDON-REED: It is the document that is announcing to the world that this country is going to take its place among the powers of the Earth, and they want to do so on the basis of equality.

INSKEEP: The founders asserted they were equals among nations and had a right to make their own decisions. Historian Jill Lepore says Jefferson was also repeating an idea from Enlightenment philosophers. Everyone was entitled to equal dignity.

JILL LEPORE: So I think, you know, it's fashionable - and I think rightly so - to indict⁶ the limits of that vision. But it is actually a radical⁷ vision in the 18th century. The notion even that all white men are equal is a radical idea. You know, I teach at Harvard College. And before the revolution, you entered a classroom, or you entered commons to have your meal in the order of the social rank and wealth of your father. Those men all lived in a highly ranked culture. And the declaration of equality is throwing that away or challenging that in a really, truly revolutionary manner.

INSKEEP: And after the revolution, Americans moved toward greater equality. Most states expanded voting rights. Some abolished slavery. A few allowed Black men to vote. Jefferson's Virginia did not. And Annette Gordon-Reed says Jefferson understood the contradiction.

GORDON-REED: He believed that slavery was wrong. As a young man, he had come to that conclusion. He had a plan for emancipation⁸ but a plan for emancipation that would require Black people to essentially⁹ have their own country where they would be free and would meet the United States as equals from their own country because he didn't think Blacks would forgive whites for what they had done, and whites would never give up their prejudices. So we would constantly be in a state of conflict. And, you know, we don't like to hear that, but we kind of have been in a state of conflict.

INSKEEP: When did people who were not included in the promise of equality begin making use of the Declaration of Independence to argue for equality?

GORDON-REED: Right away, right away. People filed freedom suits on the basis of that. I mean, they immediately saw those words as important.

INSKEEP: By 1791, people were quoting Jefferson's words back to him. Benjamin Banneker, the Black naturalist¹⁰ and writer, sent a letter to the white founding father.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Reading) This, sir, was a time in which you clearly saw into the injustice¹¹ of a state of slavery and that you publicly held forth¹² this true and invaluable¹³ doctrine¹⁴. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. But, sir, how pitiable is it to reflect that although you were so fully¹⁵ convinced of the benevolence¹⁶ of the father of mankind, that you should at the same time counteract¹⁷ his mercies in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning¹⁸ captivity¹⁹ and cruel oppression.

INSKEEP: Jefferson's declaration became a tool for those denied equal treatment. In 1848, a convention of women at Seneca Falls, N.Y., edited the declaration to make their Declaration of Sentiments.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Reading) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.

INSKEEP: One of the men who attended that meeting was Frederick Douglass, who had escaped from slavery. As an activist²⁰, he denounced the Constitution under which he'd been enslaved. But by the 1850s, Jill Lepore says, he changed his strategy.

LEPORE: Douglass comes to realize the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution - we're not going to win this battle by denouncing them. We'll actually just have to say the country's principles are on our side and then demonstrate that and then push those principles to be realized.

INSKEEP: Douglass did that in an 1852 speech, "What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July?"

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Reading) I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation's destiny. So indeed, I regard it. the principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles. Be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes²¹ and at whatever cost.

INSKEEP: Supporters of slavery felt threatened by the Declaration. In the notorious Dred Scott case of 1857, the Supreme²² Court took it on. The chief justice claimed the original meaning of all men are created equal did not include Black men. One year later, Senator Stephen Douglass said the same.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Stephen Douglas) This doctrine of Lincoln's declaring that men are made equal by the Declaration of Independence and by divine providence²³ is a monstrous²⁴ heresy²⁵.

INSKEEP: OK, that's a Walt Disney World dramatization of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. But Senator Douglas really said that. His opponent, Abraham Lincoln, really said this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Abraham Lincoln) If that Declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute²⁶ book in which we find it and tear it out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) No, never.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Abraham Lincoln) Let us stick to it then. Let us stand firmly by it.

(APPLAUSE)

INSKEEP: Three years later, Southern states tried to leave the Union to preserve slavery. The Confederate vice²⁷ president, Alexander H. Stephens, delivered what's called the Cornerstone Speech. He said Jefferson was wrong to promote equality.

PADDY HIRSCH, BYLINE: (Reading) Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.

INSKEEP: Stephen's side lost the Civil War, and the states approved three changes to the Constitution. The 14th Amendment²⁸ echoed Jefferson's language.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Reading) Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

INSKEEP: Equality was finally written into the Constitution, and then the Supreme Court took it out. A series of rulings limited federal power to defend civil rights. Yet new groups of people pressed new claims of equality.

LEPORE: By the 1870s, the populist farmers, the Grange movement, writes a new declaration of independence, asserting freedom and independence from the tyranny of monopolies, of corporate²⁹ monopolies.

INSKEEP: And in the 20th century, Americans continued to insist on the proposition from 1776. At the time of independence, the U.S. did not include Native nations, which were legally separate. Listeners to past readings of the Declaration on this program know the document mentions them only in a single racist³⁰ phrase. But by 1961, Native people were U.S. citizens, and some made Jefferson's language their own in the Declaration of Indian Purpose.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Reading) We believe in the future of a greater America, an America which we were the first to love, where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be a reality in such a future with Indians and all other Americans cooperating.

INSKEEP: Two years later, Americans gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH, "I HAVE A DREAM")

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR: In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

INSKEEP: Martin Luther King said those words five years before his assassination³¹. The San Francisco political leader Harvey Milk invoked³² them before he was killed in 1978.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MILK")

SEAN PENN: (As Harvey Milk) No matter how hard you try, you can never erase³³ those words from the Declaration of Independence.

(CHEERING)

INSKEEP: He's played there in a movie by Sean Penn. Jill Lepore says it's natural that so many people call on Jefferson's words.

LEPORE: That's where the actual idea comes from. That is a real crucible³⁴ of the idea of equality - is from people who are being denied it and who are pressing those claims.

INSKEEP: Annette Gordon-Reed says the founders saw equality as a process.

GORDON-REED: Jefferson had this idea, as well, of the next generation carrying a ball forward. And we're sort of impatient with him about that because we want him (laughter) - we wanted him to do more at that point.

INSKEEP: It would be nice if he had freed his own slaves, yes.

GORDON-REED: It'd be nice.

INSKEEP: But you're saying...

GORDON-REED: You know, but the thing is, look, OK. We created a country. We left the largest, most powerful nation on Earth and created a country. Now there are things for you to do.

INSKEEP: And many of our debates on this July Fourth turn on what equality means. What voting rules really give equal access to the ballot³⁵? Do abortion³⁶ laws give a woman equal control over her body? At what point is a fetus³⁷ entitled to equal rights? For some people, equality is out of style. Some political progressives prefer the term equity³⁸. Some Republicans in Texas and Colorado have called for unequal voting power, giving more weight to conservative voters. The global move toward authoritarian³⁹ rule opposes equality, asserting that some people are more equal than others. Yet Annette Gordon-Reed says Jefferson's declaration remains a guidepost for those who still want it.

GORDON-REED: It's like a great poem. It has a meaning that transcends⁴⁰ whatever the person may have been thinking because it is a truth, and people accept it as a truth. And some people fear that, and other people embrace it. But I think far more people in the country have embraced it and that that accounts for the progress that we have had up until this moment. I mean, it's never linear. It's never clear that we're always going to be going forward. But the tendency has been in that direction. And I think the Declaration has helped that along, much more so than the Constitution.

INSKEEP: When the Constitution was drafted, Ben Franklin said it created a republic, if you can keep it. The Declaration states a purpose for that republic, which falls to later generations to keep alive.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

6 indict   

v.起诉，控告，指控

参考例句：

• You can't indict whole people for the crudeness of a few.您不能因少数人的粗暴行为就控诉整个民族。
• I can indict you for abducting high school student.我可以告你诱拐中学生。

7 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

8 emancipation   

n.（从束缚、支配下）解放

参考例句：

• We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 naturalist   

n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)

参考例句：

• He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
• The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。

11 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

12 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

13 invaluable   

adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的

参考例句：

• A computer would have been invaluable for this job.一台计算机对这个工作的作用会是无法估计的。
• This information was invaluable to him.这个消息对他来说是非常宝贵的。

14 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

15 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

16 benevolence   

n.慈悲，捐助

参考例句：

• We definitely do not apply a policy of benevolence to the reactionaries.我们对反动派决不施仁政。
• He did it out of pure benevolence. 他做那件事完全出于善意。

17 counteract   

vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some medicine to counteract the effect of the poison.医生给他些药解毒。
• Our work calls for mutual support.We shouldn't counteract each other's efforts.工作要互相支持，不要互相拆台。

18 groaning   

adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
• The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着，无人救助。

19 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

20 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

21 foes   

敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They steadily pushed their foes before them. 他们不停地追击敌人。
• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。

22 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

23 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

24 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

25 heresy   

n.异端邪说；异教

参考例句：

• We should denounce a heresy.我们应该公开指责异端邪说。
• It might be considered heresy to suggest such a notion.提出这样一个观点可能会被视为异端邪说。

26 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

27 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

28 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

29 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

30 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

31 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

32 invoked   

v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求

参考例句：

• It is unlikely that libel laws will be invoked. 不大可能诉诸诽谤法。
• She had invoked the law in her own defence. 她援引法律为自己辩护。 来自《简明英汉词典》

33 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

34 crucible   

n.坩锅，严酷的考验

参考例句：

• The alliance had been forged in the crucible of war.这个联盟经受了战争的严峻考验。
• Put the required amount of metal into the crucible.把适量的金属放入坩埚。

35 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

36 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

37 fetus   

n.胎，胎儿

参考例句：

• In the fetus,blood cells are formed in different sites at different ages.胎儿的血细胞在不同时期生成在不同的部位。
• No one knows why a fetus is not automatically rejected by the mother's immune system. 没有人知道为什么母亲的免疫系统不会自动排斥胎儿。

38 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

39 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

40 transcends   

超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的第三人称单数 )； 优于或胜过…

参考例句：

• The chemical dilution technique transcends most of the difficulties. 化学稀释法能克服大部分困难。
• The genius of Shakespeare transcends that of all other English poets. 莎士比亚的才华胜过所有的其他英国诗人。