密歇根新闻广播 保守派抗议者聚集在国会大厦

 

Several thousand cars surrounded the Michigan Capitol grounds for blocks as far as the eye could see Wednesday in a display so densely¹ packed, one ambulance slowed to a crawl to get through. Some drivers laid on their horns, while some spilled out onto the sidewalks. At least 200 people left their cars and clustered at the front of the Capitol, not observing social distancing or wearing masks.

The protestors were there to voice their displeasure with Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay at home order, which is meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. The protest, called "Operation Gridlock," was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition².

Shelly Vanderwerff was recently laid off from the greenhouse where she worked in Zeeland, Michigan. She says she’s not upset that the governor took action to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“It’s not that. It’s the extremity³ that Governor Whitmer has gone to and I’m hoping that this will open her eyes and it will be heard that small businesses have got to be opened up after April 30 to an extent that is safe,” she says.

Protesters urged Whitmer to re-open parts of Michigan without high rates of infection.

Whitmer says demonstrators put their own health at risk and endangered public health. She says they have the right to protest. But she says too many people didn’t wear masks, practice social distancing, and brought children with them.

She also defended her executive order that’s among the strictest in the country.

“I know that there are people who are really hurting because of this. I also know that it was absolutely necessary with the path that we are on," she says. "Michigan had the third-highest number of COVID cases and deaths in the country and we are not the third-biggest state in the country.”

Whitmer says the pace of new cases is slowing, but she wants to see a steady decline in infections before lifting the order. The current order is set to expire on April 30.

Stateside spoke⁴ with Abigail Censky, a reporter for the public radio station WKAR in East Lansing, who was at the protest. Listen to that interview in the audio above.

1 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 extremity   

n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度

参考例句：

• I hope you will help them in their extremity.我希望你能帮助在穷途末路的他们。
• What shall we do in this extremity?在这种极其困难的情况下我们该怎么办呢？

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。