奥巴马哀悼达拉斯警察 安抚民众

Obama Tells Mourning Dallas ‘We Are Not So Divided’

奥巴马哀悼达拉斯警察，安抚民众

DALLAS — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the nation mourned along with Dallas for five police officers gunned down by a black Army veteran, but he implored Americans not to give in to despair or the fear that “the center might not hold.”

达拉斯——美国总统贝拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)本周二表示，举国上下在与达拉斯一齐哀悼被一名黑人退伍军人枪杀的五名警察，但他呼吁美国民众不要屈服于绝望或恐惧，认为“中心可能会崩塌。”

“I’m here to say that we must reject such despair,” Mr. Obama said at a memorial service for the officers in Dallas. “I’m here to insist that we are not so divided as we seem. I say that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds. I know we’ll make it because of what I’ve experienced in my own life.”

“在这里我要说，我们必须抵御这样的绝望感，”奥巴马在达拉斯警员的追悼仪式上说。“在这里，我要坚称，美国社会没有看上去那么分裂。我这么说，是因为我了解美国。我知道我们已经取得了多大的进步，办到了一些看似不可能的事情。回顾我自己的生活经历，我知道我们能行。”

Mr. Obama acknowledged that the killings — “an act not just of demented violence but of racial hatred” — had exposed a “fault line” in American democracy. He said he understood if Americans questioned whether the racial divide would ever be bridged.

奥巴马承认，这种杀戮行为——“不只是疯狂的暴力，也是种族仇恨”——暴露了美国民主的“断层”。他说，如果有美国人怀疑种族鸿沟是否真的能消弭，他也很理解。

“I’m not naïve,” he said. “I’ve spoken at too many memorials during the course of this presidency.”

“我并不天真，”他说。“在担任总统的这些年里，我已经在太多的追悼仪式上讲过话了。”

Mr. Obama acknowledged the limitations of his own words, and quoted from the Gospel of John: “Let us love not with words or speech but with action and in truth.”

奥巴马承认自己的话有局限性，还引用了《约翰福音》里的句子：“我们相爱，不要只在言语和舌头上，总要在行为和诚实上。”

Former President George W. Bush spoke earlier at the memorial. “Today the nation grieves, but those of us who love Dallas and call it home have had five deaths in the family,” Mr. Bush said. He added, “At times it seems like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together.”

前总统乔治·W·布什(George W. Bush)也在追悼仪式上发表了讲话。“今天，全国都在哀悼，但对于我们这些热爱达拉斯、以它为家的人来说，这个大家庭有五个人失去了生命，”布什说。“有时，要把我们分开的力量似乎比把我们团结在一起的力量更强大。”

But, Mr. Bush said, “Americans, I think, have a great advantage. To renew our unity we only have to remember our values.”

但他表示，“我认为美国人有一个很大的优势。要让我们再次团结起来，只需记住我们的价值观即可。”

Mr. Obama had huddled with his speechwriters for much of Monday, hoping to find words that would not only console the officers’ grief-stricken families but also reassure a nation fearful that racial divisions are worsening after the Dallas slaughter and the killing days before of black men by the police in Louisiana and Minnesota.

奥巴马本周一与他的演讲撰稿人再三讨论，希望能找到合适的措辞，不仅可以抚慰警员们悲伤的家人，也能安抚所有担心种族分歧会加剧的美国民众。在达拉斯枪杀案的一两天前，还发生过路易斯安那和明尼苏达警方击毙黑人男性的事件。

Mr. Obama approached the effort with the frustration of a man who has poured his heart and soul into similar speeches, only to later feel that nothing has changed and no one is listening. This was the 11th time in his presidency that he sought to comfort a city after a mass killing, and the second time in a month that such a killing grew out of bias.

在做这次演讲时，奥巴马带有一种无力感：一个曾经全身心倾注到类似演讲中的人，后来发觉自己的话几乎没有效果，几乎没有人听进去。这是他担任总统期间第11次在发生大规模枪杀案后试图安抚一座城市，这也是在一个月内第二次出现这种因偏见而滋生的杀戮。

“The president recognizes that it’s not just people in Dallas who are grieving, it’s people all across the country who are concerned about the violence that so many Americans have witnessed in the last week or so,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said on Monday.

“总统认为，不只是达拉斯人在哀悼，全美各地的民众都在关注暴力问题，很多美国人在过去一周左右的时间里目睹了这样的问题，”白宫新闻发言人乔希·欧内斯特(Josh Earnest)本周一表示。

Mr. Obama’s task was especially tough because Dallas has already undertaken many of the steps that his administration has advocated to improve race relations and foster better community ties with the police. The police chief, David O. Brown, has won high marks for his frank and unsparing remarks after the tragedy.

奥巴马此次的任务尤为艰巨，因为奥巴马政府一直主张采用措施来改善种族关系，培养更好的警民关系，而达拉斯本来就已经采取了很多这样的措施。悲剧发生后，达拉斯警察局局长戴维·O·布朗(David O. Brown)坦率而严厉的表态为他赢得了大量支持。

During a news conference on Monday, Chief Brown, who is black, said that he remained committed to reform, and his message to those protesting police conduct was simple: “Don’t be part of the problem. We’re hiring. Get out of the protest line and put an application in. We’ll put you in your neighborhood.”

布朗是黑人，他在本周一的新闻发布会上说，他仍然致力于改革，对于那些抗议警察行为的人，他要传达的讯息很简单：“不要成为问题的一部分。我们在招募警员。走出抗议队伍，申请当警察。我们会把你安排在你家附近。”