好英语网一场美国没有战胜的瘟疫
The last 12 weeks will haunt me forever. At the Montefiore Health System, where I am the chief executive, the coronavirus has killed 2,204 patients and 21 members of our courageous staff, despite our best efforts.
刚过去的12周将使我终生不安。在我担任首席执行官的蒙特菲奥里医疗系统(Montefiore Health System)内，尽管我们尽了最大的努力，新冠病毒还是带走了2204名患者和21名勇敢的工作人员。
Now, as the pandemic has subsided and our Covid-19 caseload has dropped to 143 patients from a peak of 2,208 on April 12, the nation is coming to grips with another fearful crisis — the lethal effects of racism, the pain of which is all too familiar to me.
随着疫情消退，我们的Covid-19病例数量从4月12日的峰值2208人下降到143人，美国现在正面临另一场可怕的危机——种族主义的致命后果，它所带来的痛苦对我来说再熟悉不过。
It was hard for me to watch the video of Amy Cooper calling 911 after Christian Cooper, a black bird watcher in Central Park, asked her to leash her dog. “There’s an African-American man … threatening myself and my dog,” she told the dispatcher, putting Mr. Cooper’s freedom and life in the balance.
我看不下去艾米·库珀(Amy Cooper)拨打911的视频：在中央公园，黑人观鸟爱好者克里斯蒂安·库珀(Christian Cooper)要求她给狗拴绳后，她拨打了911并对调度员说：“有一个非裔美国人……威胁我和我的狗，”将克里斯蒂安·库珀的自由和生命置于险境。
I know what he must have expected would come next, because I’m a black man. I know — from when I was stopped years ago in Los Angeles while walking through a white neighborhood to catch a bus — that the police could ask him to put his arms up in the air, turn around, walk backward, get on his knees, interlace his fingers behind his head and get frisked, all before any questions were asked. And if he dared to be indignant and ask why, well now he’s resisting, and the situation could easily escalate. He may not go home that day.
他肯定知道接下来会发生什么，我知道，因为我是黑人。我知道——从多年前我在洛杉矶步行穿过一个白人居民区去坐公共汽车时被拦住的时候——警察可以要求他将双臂高高举起，转身，后退，跪下，在没有任何问询的情况下，先让他将双手交叉放在头后并搜身。如果他胆敢发怒并质疑，那么他就是在抵抗，情况很容易升级。他可能当天回不了家。
I have never been arrested, as George Floyd was before a police officer crushed him to death. But I know the frustration and the rage and the humiliation of having to accept the abuse of police power. I know what it feels like to be pulled over almost daily because you’re young and you’re black and you’re male and you’re driving a late-model automobile.
和被警察压死之前的乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)一样，我从未被捕过。但是我知道那种不得不接受警察滥用权力的挫败、愤怒和屈辱的感受。我知道几乎每天开车都要被拦下来的感觉，因为你是年轻黑人男性，而且你开的是一辆新款车。
I know what it feels like when the officer walks up and the first question is, “Is this your car?” And the next command is, “Please step out of the car.” And then sit on the pavement, cross your ankles, put your hands behind you. And I know what it’s like to sit there for 40 minutes while they take the drug-sniffing dog through your car. For no reason whatsoever. And at the end of it, with no explanation and no apology, to be told, “OK, you’re good, you can go now.”
当警察走过来的时候，我知道那种感觉，警察上来问：“这是你的车吗？”接下来的命令是：“请下车。”然后坐在人行便道上，双脚交叉，手放在身后。我还知道在那里坐上40分钟、期间他们让缉毒犬进车检查是什么感觉。根本没什么理由。最后，在没有任何解释和道歉的情况下，我被告知：“好，你没事了，你现在可以走了。”
I also know what it feels like to be at a fancy gala at the Waldorf Astoria in a tuxedo, waiting to check your coat, and have other people walk up and hand you their mink coats and say, “Check this for me.”
我还知道穿着燕尾服在华尔道夫饭店(Waldorf Astoria)参加一场盛会的感觉，正等着存外套的时候，会有人走过来把他们的貂皮大衣递给你说：“帮我存一下。”
I know the cumulative burden of those experiences day after day, week after week, month after month, decade after decade.
我知道这些经验累积起来的负担，一日复一日、一周复一周、一月复一月、十年复十年。
While I know from experience that most law enforcement officers honorably fulfill their oath to protect and serve, African-American men in particular have reason to fear that the police will hurt or kill them because of the color of their skin and they deserve to be free from that fear. All Americans deserve to have a life where they can walk freely, not threatened and harassed in their own country.
虽然我从经验中知道，大多数执法人员无愧于他们保护与服务的誓言，但非裔美国人尤其有理由担心警察会因其肤色而伤害或杀死他们，而他们不应当承受这种恐惧。所有美国人都应该过上可以自由走动的生活，不会在自己的国家受到威胁和骚扰。
It’s hard to find comfort in this troubling time. But I see rare hope that these twin disasters disproportionately hurting minorities — one a brand-new virus and the other a virus as old as the country itself — could finally prove the true strength of our shared humanity.
在这个令人不安的时期难以找到慰藉。但是在两种严重伤害了少数群体的病毒——一个是崭新的病毒，另一个是和这个国家一样古老的病毒——面前，我罕见地看到了证明人性真正力量的机会。
America has changed its behavior in such profound and fundamental ways to mitigate the coronavirus, from self-quarantining and working from home to wearing masks and literally risking our lives to care for the sick. As our streets fill every night with protesters demanding a change that has been too long in coming, I dare to hope that we as a people can summon the same selfless courage and determination to change our behavior to address the endemic racism and brutality that plagues our country.
为了缓解疫情，美国的行为方式产生了深刻的改变，从自我隔离和居家办公，到戴口罩以及冒着生命危险来照顾病人。当我们的街头每晚都遍布抗议者，要求迟迟未到的改变，我敢于希望我们作为民众能够唤起同样无私的勇气和决心来改变我们的行为，从而解决困扰一部分人的种族主义，以及令我们国家陷入灾难的残暴。
Then finally we may rid ourselves of that deadly virus as well.
到那时，也许我们最终也能摆脱这种致命的病毒。