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英语名人演讲稿篇1
kipling said:“east is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet!” but now, a century later, they have met.
they have met in business. they have met in education. they have met in the arts. some people will argue that these meetings will leave us with a choice between east and west, but i believe that the best future lies in the creative combination of both worlds. we can make western ideas, customs and technology our own, and adapt them to our own use. we can enjoy the best of both worlds, because our tradition is, above all, one of selecting the best and making it our own.
i love beijing and hennan opera because it always reminds me of who i am. but i am also a fan of pop music, especially english songs. so i have combined eastern melody with western language. it is called western henna opera.
when two cultures meet, there may be things in one culture, which do not fit into the tradition of the other. when this happens, we need to learn to understand and respect the customs of another culture. then there are certain things some people may not like. to this, i will say, if you do not like it, please try to tolerate it. to learn to tolerate what you personally don’t like is a great virtue at a time when different cultures mi_ and merge. before us, there are two rivers, eastern and western cultures. at present, they may run in different courses. but eventually, they will converge into the vast sea of human culture.
right now, i can see peoples of eastern and western cultures, standing side by side, singing the olympic theme song: we are hand in hand, heart to heart, together we will shape a beautiful tomorrow! thank you!
英语名人演讲稿篇2
a time to break silence by martin luther king, jr.
i come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. i join you in this meeting because i am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: clergy and laymen concerned about vietnam. the recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart, and i found myself in full accord when i read its opening lines: "a time comes when silence is betrayal." and that time has come for us in relation to vietnam.
the truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.
and some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. we must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. and we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. if it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.
over the past two years, as i have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as i have called for radical departures from the destruction of vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. at the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: "why are you speaking about the war, dr. king?" "why are you joining the voices of dissent?" "peace and civil rights don't mix," they say. "aren't you hurting the cause of your people," they ask? and when i hear them, though i often understand the source of their concern, i am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.
in the light of such tragic misunderstanding, i deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and i trust concisely, why i believe that the path from dexter avenue baptist church -- the church in montgomery, alabama, where i began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.
i come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. this speech is not addressed to hanoi or to the national liberation front. it is not addressed to china or to russia. nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of vietnam. neither is it an attempt to make north vietnam or the national liberation front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they must play in the successful resolution of the problem. while they both may have justifiable reasons to be suspicious of the good faith of the united states, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.
tonight, however, i wish not to speak with hanoi and the national liberation front, but rather to my fellowed [sic] americans, *who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.
since i am a preacher by trade, i suppose it is not surprising that i have seven major reasons for bringing vietnam into the field of my moral vision.* there is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in vietnam and the struggle i, and others, have been waging in america. a few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. it seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. there were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. then came the buildup in vietnam, and i watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and i knew that america would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. so, i was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. it was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. we were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in southeast asia which they had not found in southwest georgia and east harlem. and so we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching negro and white boys on tv screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. and so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in chicago. i could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.
my third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the north over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. as i have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, i have told them that molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. i have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. but they ask -- and rightly so -- what about vietnam? they ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. their questions hit home, and i knew that i could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. for the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, i cannot be silent.
for those who ask the question, "aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, i have this further answer. in 1957 when a group of us formed the southern christian leadership conference, we chose as our motto: "to save the soul of america." we were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that america would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. in a way we were agreeing with langston hughes, that black bard of harlem, who had written earlier:
o, yes,
i say it plain,
america never was america to me,
and yet i swear this oath --
america will be!
now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of america today can ignore the present war. if america's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: vietnam. it can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. so it is that those of us who are yet determined that america will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.
as if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of america were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1954** [sic]; and i cannot forget that the nobel prize for peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than i had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." this is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present i would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of jesus christ. to me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that i sometimes marvel at those who ask me why i'm speaking against the war. could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? what then can i say to the vietcong or to castro or to mao as a faithful minister of this one? can i threaten them with death or must i not share with them my life?
and finally, as i try to explain for you and for myself the road that leads from montgomery to this place i would have offered all that was most valid if i simply said that i must be true to my conviction that i share with all men the calling to be a son of the living god. beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because i believe that the father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, i come tonight to speak for them.
this i believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. we are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.
and as i ponder the madness of vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. i speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the liberation front, not of the junta in saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. i think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
they must see americans as strange liberators. the vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence *in 1954* -- in 1945 *rather* -- after a combined french and japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in china. they were led by ho chi minh. even though they quoted the american declaration of independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. instead, we decided to support france in its reconquest of her former colony. our government felt then that the vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. with that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination and a government that had been established not by china -- for whom the vietnamese have no great love -- but by clearly indigenous forces that included some communists. for the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.
for nine years following 1945 we denied the people of vietnam the right of independence. for nine years we vigorously supported the french in their abortive effort to recolonize vietnam. before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the french war costs. even before the french were defeated at dien bien phu, they began to despair of their reckless action, but we did not. we encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.
after the french were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the geneva agreement. but instead there came the united states, determined that ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators, our chosen man, premier diem. the peasants watched and cringed as diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords, and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. the peasants watched as all this was presided over by united states' influence and then by increasing numbers of united states troops who came to help quell the insurgency that diem's methods had aroused. when diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictators seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace.
the only change came from america, as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support. all the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow vietnamese, the real enemy. they move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. they know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs.
so they go, primarily women and children and the aged. they watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. they must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. they wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from american firepower for one vietcong-inflicted injury. so far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. they wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. they see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. they see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.
what do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? what do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of europe? where are the roots of the independent vietnam we claim to be building? is it among these voiceless ones?
we have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. we have destroyed their land and their crops. we have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutionary political force, the unified buddhist church. we have supported the enemies of the peasants of saigon. we have corrupted their women and children and killed their men.
now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. *soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call "fortified hamlets." the peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new vietnam on such grounds as these. could we blame them for such thoughts? we must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. these, too, are our brothers.
perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies.* what of the national liberation front, that strangely anonymous group we call "vc" or "communists"? what must they think of the united states of america when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of diem, which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? what do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? how can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? how can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condone their actions. surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.
how do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent communist, and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? what must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of vietnam, and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will not have a part? they ask how we can speak of free elections when the saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. and they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them, the only party in real touch with the peasants. they question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. their questions are frighteningly relevant. is our nation planning to build on political myth again, and then shore it up upon the power of new violence?
here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. for from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
so, too, with hanoi. in the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. to speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in western words, and especially their distrust of american intentions now. in hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the japanese and the french, the men who sought membership in the french commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. it was they who led a second struggle against french domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at geneva. after 1954 they watched us conspire with diem to prevent elections which could have surely brought ho chi minh to power over a united vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. when we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered.
also, it must be clear that the leaders of hanoi considered the presence of american troops in support of the diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the geneva agreement concerning foreign troops. they remind us that they did not begin to send troops in large numbers and even supplies into the south until american forces had moved into the tens of thousands.
hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier north vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. ho chi minh has watched as america has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors of american plans for an invasion of the north. he knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor, weak nation more than *eight hundred, or rather,* eight thousand miles away from its shores.
at this point i should make it clear that while i have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called "enemy," i am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. for it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. we are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.
somehow this madness must cease. we must stop now. i speak as a child of god and brother to the suffering poor of vietnam. i speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. i speak for the poor of america who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in vietnam. i speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. i speak as one who loves america, to the leaders of our own nation: the great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.
this is the message of the great buddhist leaders of vietnam. recently one of them wrote these words, and i quote:
each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. the americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. it is curious that the americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. the image of america will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism (unquote).
if we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in vietnam. if we do not stop our war against the people of vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. the world now demands a maturity of america that we may not be able to achieve. it demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the vietnamese people. the situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. in order to atone for our sins and errors in vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.
*i would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:
number one: end all bombing in north and south vietnam.
number two: declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
three: take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in southeast asia by curtailing our military buildup in thailand and our interference in laos.
four: realistically accept the fact that the national liberation front has substantial support in south vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and any future vietnam government.
five: *set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from vietnam in accordance with the 1954 geneva agreement.
part of our ongoing...part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the liberation front. then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. we must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. meanwhile... meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. we must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in vietnam. we must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible.
*as we counsel young men concerning military service, we must clarify for them our nation's role in vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. i am pleased to say that this is a path now chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, morehouse college, and i recommend it to all who find the american course in vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. moreover, i would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors.* these are the times for real choices and not false ones. we are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.
now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in vietnam. i say we must enter that struggle, but i wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.
the war in vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the american spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality...and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. they will be concerned about guatemala and peru. they will be concerned about thailand and cambodia. they will be concerned about mozambique and south africa. we will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in american life and policy.
and so, such thoughts take us beyond vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living god.
in 1957, a sensitive american official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. during the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified the presence of u.s. military advisors in venezuela. this need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of american forces in guatemala. it tells why american helicopters are being used against guerrillas in cambodia and why american napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in peru.
it is with such activity in mind that the words of the late john f. kennedy come back to haunt us. five years ago he said, "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. i am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. we must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
a true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. on the one hand, we are called to play the good samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. one day we must come to see that the whole jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
a true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. with righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the west investing huge sums of money in asia, africa, and south america, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "this is not just." it will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of south america and say, "this is not just." the western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
a true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "this way of settling differences is not just." this business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
america, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. there is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. there is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
*this kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. war is not the answer. communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the united states to relinquish its participation in the united nations.* these are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. *we must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. we must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.*
these are revolutionary times. all over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. the shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. we in the west must support these revolutions.
it is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries. this has driven many to feel that only marxism has a revolutionary spirit. therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. with this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."
a genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.
this call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. this oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. when i speak of love i am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. i am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. i am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. this hindu-muslim-christian-jewish-buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of saint john: "let us love one another, for love is god. and every one that loveth is born of god and knoweth god. he that loveth not knoweth not god, for god is love." "if we love one another, god dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us." let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.
we can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. the oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. and history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. as arnold toynbee says: "love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word" (unquote).
we are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. in this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. procrastination is still the thief of time. life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. the tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. we may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "too late." there is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. omar khayyam is right: "the moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."
we still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. we must move past indecision to action. we must find new ways to speak for peace in vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. if we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
now let us begin. now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. this is the calling of the sons of god, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. shall we say the odds are too great? shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? will our message be that the forces of american life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? or will there be another message -- of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? the choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.
as that noble bard of yesterday, james russell lowell, eloquently stated:
once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,
in the strife of truth and falsehood, for the good or evil side;
some great cause, god's new messiah offering each the bloom or blight,
and the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.
though the cause of evil prosper, yet 'tis truth alone is strong
though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong
yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
standeth god within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
and if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace.
if we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
if we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over america and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
英语名人演讲稿篇3
five score years ago, a great american, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the emancipation proclamation. this momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. it came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
but one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the negro is still not free. one hundred years later, the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. one hundred years later, the negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. one hundred years later, the negro is still languishing in the corners of american society and finds himself an exile in his own land. so we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
in a sense we have 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. this note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
it is obvious today that america has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. instead of honoring this sacred obligation, america has given the negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." but we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. we refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
so we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
we have also come to this hallowed spot to remind america of the fierce urgency of now. this is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of god's children. now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
it would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the negro. this sweltering summer of the negro's legitimate discontent will not pauntil there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning.
英语名人演讲稿篇4
dear:
that is why this summer, at the g20 conference, the united states and japan were founding members of a bold, new initiative with the world bank – the women entrepreneurs finance initiative. this facility is the first of its kind to empower women entrepreneurs in developing countries. it will provide access to the capital, networks, and mentorship needed to thrive and will dramatically impact the ecosystem of women’s entrepreneurship globally.
and we are just getting started!
as we gather in tokyo today, i can’t help but think of some of the great women pioneers in this country who have inspired our generation.
women like yoshiko shinohara
she survived world war two, started as a secretary and went on to open a small business in her one-bedroom apartment. her company grew into a world renowned business in over a dozen countries. today, as you all know, yoshiko is japan’s first female self-made billionaire. now, she helps young people afford the education they need to pursue their dreams and contribute to society.
because of pioneers like yoshiko, women in this country – and around the world – aspire to greater feats, climb to higher positions, and pave new pathways forward.
today, we are redefining success. we’re discarding the old formula of the ideal woman-the ideal worker -the ideal mother. we are helping to shape a more realistic and complete picture of what it is to be a woman who thrives – and who helps her business, community and family do the same.
the fact is, all women are “working women.” whether they make the commute to work each morning, or spend each day with their children at home, or some combination of both. truth be told, on sunday nights, after a messy and wonderful weekend with my children, i am far more exhausted than on friday evenings, after a long week of work at the office. i deeply admire women who choose to work inside the home raising their children and respect this decision.
英语名人演讲稿篇5
youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks， red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will， a quality of the imagination， a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity， of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. this often e_ists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. nobody grows old merely by a number of years. we grow old by deserting our ideals.
years may wrinkle the skin， but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. worry， fear， self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring back to dust.
whether 60 or 16， there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder， the unfailing childlike appetite of what's ne_t and the joy of the game of living. in the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it receives messages of beauty， hope， cheer， courage and power from men and from the infinite， so long are you young.
when the aerials are down， and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism， then you are grown old， even at 20， but as long as your aerials are up， to catch waves of optimism， there is hope you may die young at 80.
英语名人演讲稿篇6
ladies and gentlemen
i'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening because i have some -- some very sad news for all of you -- could you lower those signs please? -- i have some very sad news for all of you and i think sad news for all of our fellow citizens and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that martin luther king was shot and was killed tonight in memphis tennessee.
martin luther king dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. he died in the cause of that effort. in this difficult day in this difficult time for the united states it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. for those of you who are black -- considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness and with hatred and a desire for revenge.
we can move in that direction as a country in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks and white amongst whites filled with hatred toward one another. or we can make an effort as martin luther king did to understand and to comprehend and replace that violence that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land with an effort to understand compassion and love.
for those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with -- be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act against all white people i would only say that i can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. i had a member of my family killed but he was killed by a white man.
but we have to make an effort in the united states. we have to make an effort to understand to get beyond or go beyond these rather difficult times.
英语名人演讲稿篇7
hello, everybody! thank you. thank you. thank you, everybody. all right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. how is everybody doing today
(applause.) how about tim spicer(applause.) i am here with students at wakefield high school in arlington, virginia. and we've got students tuning in from all across america, from kindergarten through 12th grade. and i am just so glad that all could join us today. and i want to thank wakefield for being such an outstanding host. give yourselves a big round of applause. (applause.)
i know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. and for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. i imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now -- (applause) -- with just one more year to go. and no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you could've stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.
i know that feeling. when i was young, my family lived overseas. i lived in indonesia for a few years. and my mother, she didn't have the money to send me where all the american kids went to school, but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an american education. so she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, monday through friday. but because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.
now, as you might imagine, i wasn't too happy about getting up that early. and a lot of times, i'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. but whenever i'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and she'd say, "this is no picnic for me either, buster." (laughter.)
so i know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. but i'm here today because i have something important to discuss with you. i'm here because i want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.
now, i've given a lot of speeches about education. and i've talked about responsibility a lot. i've talked about teachers' responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn. i've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get
your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the tv or with the xbox. i've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working, where students aren't getting the opportunities that they deserve.
but at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. that's what i want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.
i want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. every single one of you has something that you're good at. every single one of you has something to offer. and you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. that's the opportunity an education can provide.
these people succeeded because they understood that you can't let your failures define you -- you have to let your failures teach you. you have to let them show you what to do differently the next time. so if you get into trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to act right. if you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
英语名人演讲稿篇8
several months ago, the trump administration instructed the department of education to prioritize stem education, especially computer science, in our schools. the guidance we offered directed that these programs be designed with gender and racial diversity in mind.
at the direction of the president, i have worked closely with leadership across government agencies to prioritize workforce development and proven on-the-job training programs like apprenticeships so that young women – and men – have more opportunities to earn while they learn, provide for their families, and master the skills that drive progress in the 21st century.
finally, we must empower women who live in countries that prevent them from leading.
across the world, there are still laws that stop women from fully participating in their nation’s economy.
in some countries, women are not allowed to own property, travel freely, or work outside of the home without the consent of their husbands.
countries like the united states and japan cannot be complacent. we must continue to champion reforms in our own countries while also empowering women in restricted economies.
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