1963年11月22日，美国总统约翰?肯尼迪(John F.Kennedy)遇刺身亡后，达拉斯就背上了“仇恨之城”的名声。人们指责达拉斯市民制造了一种狂热的右翼氛围，从而促使李?哈维?奥斯瓦尔德(Lee Harvey Oswald)枪杀了总统。达拉斯现任市长迈克?罗林斯(Mike Rawlings)告诉我：“有报道称，在20世纪60年代和70年代初，达拉斯人去外地时，会因为自己是达拉斯人而感到尴尬。”

　　I found Rawlings sneaking a catnap at the New Cities Summit in Sao Paulo in June. The man who came to Dallas in 1976 with $200 in his pocket and made it to president of Pizza Hut was taking the briefest break from his usual activity: plugging Dallas. But how does any city incorporate a global trauma into its image? It's taken Dallas 50 years to learn to deal with the murder.

　　今年6月，在圣保罗的新城市峰会(New Cities Summit)上，我趁罗林斯偷偷打盹时找到了他。这位1976年揣着200美元来到达拉斯、后来当过必胜客(Pizza Hut)总裁的达拉斯市长正在小憩，暂时把他的日常活动——宣传达拉斯——放在了一边。但一个城市在经历一场闻名全球的创伤之后，如何在世人面前构建自己的形象？达拉斯花了50年的时间，才学会坦然接受那起刺杀事件。

　　Many Americans in 1963 couldn't accept that a lone loser like Oswald had changed history. Consequently, they blamed larger entities. Conspiracy theorists accused the Central Intelligence Agency or Cuban exiles. Others blamed Dallas itself.

　　1963年，让许多美国人无法接受的是，历史居然被奥斯瓦尔德这么个孤独的失败者改写了。因此，他们怪罪于一些更大的组织和群体。阴谋论者指责美国中央情报局(CIA)或古巴流亡者策划了刺杀事件。其他人则谴责达拉斯这个城市。

　　To quote Texas Monthly magazine: “The tragedy seemed to seal the perception of our state as being populated by a bunch of trigger-happy yeehaws who were beyond forgiveness.” Because few outsiders knew anything else about Dallas, the assassination branded the city. In truth, Dallas in 1963 did house some noisy rightist Kennedy-haters. Days before he arrived, “Wanted for Treason” leaflets featuring him appeared around town. And on the day, the Dallas Morning News published an ominously black-bordered full-page ad portraying him as a communist fellow-traveller. Reading it, Kennedy told his wife: “We're heading into nut country today.”

　　《德克萨斯月刊》(Texas Monthly)写道：“那起悲剧似乎把世人对本州的印象固定了下来，即一个充斥着牛仔的州，那些牛仔动辄开枪、根本不值得原谅。”因为外面的人对达拉斯的其他方面知之甚少，于是刺杀事件成了这座城市的标签。事实上，1963年的达拉斯确实有一些讨厌肯尼迪、吵吵嚷嚷的右翼分子。在肯尼迪抵达达拉斯之前的几天，印着他的肖像、写有“通缉叛国者”(Wanted for Treason)的传单在城里随处可见。就在肯尼迪遇刺当天，《达拉斯晨报》(Dallas Morning News)整版刊出了一则颇不吉利的黑边广告，将他描绘为“共产主义的同路人”。看到广告，肯尼迪对妻子说：“我们今天要去一个疯子国了。”

　　After the murder, many diagnosed city-wide hate. Bill Minutaglio, co-author of the new book Dallas 1963, says: “Nothing like this could have happened, but in Dallas.”

　　肯尼迪遇刺后，许多人称达拉斯充斥着仇恨。新书《达拉斯1963》(Dallas 1963)的合著者比尔?米努塔利奥(Bill Minutaglio)说：“除了达拉斯，这种事不可能在其他任何地方发生。”

　　Yet blaming Dallas is illogical. Oswald was a Marxist nut, not a rightwing nut. And as Rawlings says, “Dallas loves its presidents.” Nearly one in three Dallasites turned out to see Kennedy, with barely an unfriendly sign on display. In the motorcade, the Texan governor's wife, Nellie Connally, gushed, “Mr President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you.” She was mostly right. Assassinations, Americans soon learnt, can happen anywhere. Cities don't kill people. People kill people.

　　但谴责达拉斯是没有道理的。奥斯瓦尔德是马克思主义疯子，而不是右翼疯子。正如罗林斯所说：“达拉斯人爱戴总统。”近三分之一的达拉斯人为了亲眼一睹肯尼迪尊容而走出家门，现场几乎没有不友好的迹象。在车队中，德克萨斯州州长夫人内莉?康纳利(Nellie Connally)充满感情地说：“总统先生，您不能说达拉斯人不爱戴您。”她的话几乎没错儿。美国人很快明白，刺杀事件可能发生在任何地方。凶手不是城市，而是人。

　　After 1963, says Rawlings, many Dallasites “wanted to move on as quickly as possible”. They rarely discussed the murder. Gradually, though, the mood changed. Rawlings says: “In the 1980s, people started to think: we are the home of a very important moment in history. Not only because of the assassination, but that seemed to be the dawning of a new era. After that came the Vietnam war, civil rights came to its fruition, women's liberation. There was a new world, a door that somehow people walked through. Citizens said, 'We've got to make sure we capture the truth of this history.“”

　　罗林斯说，1963年以后，许多达拉斯人“希望尽快走出这件事的阴影”。他们很少谈及刺杀事件。但民众的情绪渐渐变了。罗林斯说：“20世纪80年代，人们开始认为，达拉斯见证了一个非常重要的历史时刻。这不仅是因为那一刻发生了刺杀事件，更是因为那一刻似乎标志着一个新时代的到来。在那之后，越战升级、民权运动开花结果、第二波女权运动兴起。世界焕然一新，人类历史不知怎么的翻开了新的篇章。当时的达拉斯人说，‘我们必须确保准确地理解这段历史。’”

　　Oswald had shot from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Plans to tear the building down were dropped. In 1989 it became a museum. Rawlings says, “For many years it was the one site that if someone visited you and said, 'What do you want to do in the afternoon?” you would say, 'Want to go down to the Sixth Floor Museum?“”

　　奥斯瓦尔德开枪的地方，位于达拉斯的德克萨斯州教科书仓库大楼(Texas School Book Depository)六层。达拉斯有过种种拆除那座大楼的计划，但后来都未执行。1989年，那座大楼变成了一座博物馆。罗林斯说：“多年以来，那座博物馆一直是来达拉斯的人必须造访的景点。如果有人来达拉斯拜访你，问你下午想干嘛？你会回答说，想不想去六楼博物馆(Sixth Floor Museum)？”

　　He adds: “I don't think we should be defensive or try to remove anything. It is what it is. That part of history will always be in Dallas.” Even Oswald, says Rawlings, belongs in the city's history. He attended elementary school in Dallas, and returned in 1962 after his Soviet jaunt.

　　他补充道：“我觉得我们不应该戒备心太强，或抹掉过去的任何痕迹。事实就是事实。那段历史将永远留在达拉斯身上。”罗林斯说，即便是奥斯瓦尔德，也将永远在达拉斯的历史占有一席之地。他曾在达拉斯上小学，短暂游历苏联后于1962年又回到该市。

　　The city can face these facts today largely because the assassination's stigma has faded. Rawlings says: “With time that changed, with the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys [football team] and different things that Dallas started to become known for. It became a secondary branding for the city.”

　　达拉斯如今能够直面这些现实，很大程度上是因为刺杀事件带来的耻辱感已经褪去。罗林斯说：“随着时间的推移，人们开始因达拉斯牛仔队（Dallas Cowboys，美式橄榄球队）等各种其他的东西知道达拉斯。刺杀事件成为了达拉斯众多标志中比较不显著的一个。”

　　On Friday, the world will be watching Dallas. Rawlings says: “Before I became mayor, I realised that the one moment people were going to pay more attention to Dallas while I was mayor was November 22 2013. People look to 50th anniversaries. They remember where they were, and you retell the story.” Friday's commemoration will be sober and “very untouristy”, he adds. “I'm very shy about trying to do too much on this day. If I can stand up straight, salute the president and move on, I think Dallas has done what's right. Our brand won't be made because of this.”

　　本周五（11月22日），达拉斯将汇聚世界的目光。罗林斯说：“我在当上市长之前就意识到，我任期内人们最关注达拉斯的时刻将是2013年11月22日。人们关注50周年。他们回忆过去，而你要重新讲述那段历史。”他补充道，周五的纪念活动将是庄重的，也“尽量不会带有吸引游客的色彩”。“我很担心这一天的纪念活动过于大张旗鼓。如果我能笔直地站起身，向肯尼迪总统致敬，然后把历史的这一页翻过去，我觉得达拉斯就做对了。我们无法凭借纪念活动树立我们的形象。”

　　Where was Rawlings on November 22 1963? “In elementary school in Leawood, Kansas. They moved us to the gymnasium, and I remember sitting Indian-style on the floor when the principal told us, and we were sent home. My mother was a teacher, and before she passed away she gave me a stack of letters that she had had her elementary-school grade write about their reflections on that weekend. It was marvellous. Just a bunch of kids in a random school in Kansas talking about this shows the depth and breadth of this moment in people's lives.”

　　1963年11月22日那天，罗林斯在哪儿？“那天我在堪萨斯州利伍德(Leawood)的一所小学里。校方将我们转移到体育馆，我记得大家盘腿坐在地板上，校长向我们介绍了事件的经过，然后学校就宣布放学了。我母亲是小学教师，她曾让自己教的小学生写作文，叙述他们对周末那起事件的感想，后来她在去世前将那一叠作文交给了我。看到那一叠作文，我感觉很奇妙。堪萨斯州一所普通的小学里的孩子们都在作文里谈论此事，仅此就能表明，这一历史瞬间对人们的生活产生了多么广泛而深刻的影响。”