Pat Mitchell: I know you don't like that "legend" business.
帕特:我知道, 您不喜欢被称作“传奇”。
Marian Wright Edelman: I don't.
玛丽安: 是不喜欢。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
PM: Why not, Marian? Because you are somewhat of a legend. You've been doing this for a long time, and you're still there as founder and president.
帕特:为何不喜欢呢,玛丽安? 因为您本身就是传奇。 这件事您已经做了很久了, 而且作为(儿童防护基金的) 创始人和主席,您一直很活跃。
MWE: Well, because my daddy raised us and my mother raised us to serve, and we are servant-leaders. And it is not about external things or labels, and I feel like the luckiest person in the world having been born at the intersection of great needs and great injustices and great opportunities to change them. So I just feel very grateful that I could serve and make a difference.
玛丽安:因为父亲、母亲 养育我们,就是为了服侍, 我们就是神仆的领头羊。 这无关于外在的东西或标签, 我觉得自己是世上最幸运的人, 出生于巨大需求和 大量不公正交织的年代, 也存在大好机会让你 去改变这种状况。 所以,我很荣幸 可以为他人服务、有所作为。
PM: What a beautiful way of saying it.
帕特:您说得实在是太好了。
(Applause)
(掌声)
You grew up in the American South, and like all children, a lot of who you became was molded by your parents. Tell me: What did they teach you about movement-building?
您在美国南部长大, 像所有孩子一样, 您的成长受父母的影响很大。 能不能告诉我,在组织筹划 各种运动方面,父母教会了你什么?
MWE: I had extraordinary parents. I was so lucky. My mother was the best organizer I ever knew. And she always insisted, even back then, on having her own dime. She started her dairy so that she could have her penny, and that sense of independence has certainly been passed on to me. My daddy was a minister, and they were real partners. And my oldest sibling is a sister, I'm the youngest, and there are three boys in between. But I always knew I was as smart as my brothers. I always was a tomboy. I always had the same high aspirations that they had. But most importantly, we were terribly blessed, even though we were growing up in a very segregated small town in South Carolina -- we knew it was wrong. I always knew, from the time I was four years old, that I wasn't going to accept being put into slots. But Daddy and Mama always had the sense that it was not us, it was the outside world, but you have the capacity to grow up to change it, and I began to do that very early on. But most importantly, they were the best role models, because they said: if you see a need, don't ask why somebody doesn't do it. See what you can do.
玛丽安:我很幸运, 我的父母很了不起。 我的母亲是我所知的 最棒的活动组织者。 即使在那时,她一直坚持经济自立。 为了挣钱,她有了自己的牛奶事业, 而这种独立的秉性 自然而然地传给了我。 我父亲是牧师, 他俩简直是天作之合。 几个孩子中最大的是姐姐, 我最小,中间有仨哥哥。 但我一直知道自己 和哥哥们一样聪明。 我从小就是个假小子, 和他们一样,我也有远大抱负。 最重要的是,我们是最幸运的, 即便我们在一个 种族隔离严重的 南卡罗来纳州小镇上长大—— 但我们知道,种族隔离是错的, 从四岁起,我就知道, 我才不接受成为 别人游戏的筹码呢。 但父母一直认为这不取决于我们, 而取决于外面的世界, 但你们有能力 在长大后去改变世界, 所以很早我就开始着手于这件事。 但最重要的是, 父母是我最好的楷模, 因为父母这样教导我们: 如果你看到了他人的需求, 不要问为什么没人去做, 而是看看你能做些什么。
There was no home for the aged in our hometown. And Reverend Reddick, who had what we know now, 50 years later, as Alzheimer's, and he began to wander the streets. And so Daddy and Mama figured out he needed a place to go, so we started a home for the aged. Children had to cook and clean and serve. We didn't like it at the time, but that's how we learned that it was our obligation to take care of those who couldn't take care of themselves. I had 12 foster sisters and brothers. My mother took them in after we left home, and she took them in before we left home. And again, whenever you see a need, you try to fulfill it. God runs, Daddy used to say, a full employment economy.
我的家乡没有安置老人的地方, 雷迪克牧师得了50年后的今天 才为人所知的阿尔兹海默症, 他当时开始在街头游荡。 我父母觉得他需要有个去处, 于是,我们成立了老人之家。 孩子们需要做饭、 打扫并照顾老人。 那时我们都不喜欢这差事, 但这让我们明白了, 照顾那些无法自理的人 是我们的责任。 我有12个领养的兄弟姐妹。 有我们长大离家后母亲领养的, 也有我们未成年时母亲领养的。 还是同样的原因,当他人 需要你时,你只管努力提供帮助。 父亲常说,上帝让人人有事做。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And so if you just follow the need, you will never lack for something to do or a real purpose in life.
如果你就跟着需求走, 你一定不会觉得无所事事 或缺少生命的真正目标。
And every issue that the Children's Defense Fund works on today comes out of my childhood in a very personal way. Little Johnny Harrington, who lived three doors down from me, stepped on a nail; he lived with his grandmother, got tetanus, went to the hospital, no tetanus shots, he died. He was 11 years old. I remember that.
今天儿童防护基金所做的每件事, 都和我儿时的亲身经历 有着千丝万缕的联系。 记得与我家三门之隔, 和祖母住在一起的 小约翰尼·哈灵顿踩钉子上了, 得了破伤风,虽去了医院 但打不起破伤风疫苗, 还是死了。他才11岁。 我记得很清楚。
An accident in front of our highway, turns out to have been two white truck drivers and a migrant family that happened to be black. We all ran out to help. It was in the front of a church, and the ambulance came, saw that the white truck drivers were not injured, saw the black migrant workers were, turned around and left them. I never forgot that.
还记得我们公路上 发生的一起车祸, 事故涉及两个白人卡车司机 和一家碰巧是黑人的移民。 我们都跑过去帮忙, 事故地在教堂前面,救护车来了, 看到白人卡车司机并没受伤、 只是黑人移民工人受伤后, 救护车直接掉头开走了。 我永远都忘不掉那个场景。
And immunizations was one of the first things I worked on at the Children's Defense Fund to make sure that every child gets immunized against preventable diseases. Unequal schools ...
所以,成立儿童防护基金后, 疫苗接种就是 我要做的头几件事之一, 要确保每个孩子都能 对那些可预防的疾病免疫。 还有,不平等学校的事......
(Applause)
(掌声)
Separate and unequal, hand-me-downs from the white schools. But we always had books in our house. Daddy was a great reader. He used to make me read every night with him. I'd have to sit for 15 or 20 minutes. One day I put a "True Confessions" inside a "Life Magazine" and he asked me to read it out loud. I never read a "True Confessions" again.
单独的黑人学校, 比白人学校低一等, 东西都是白人学校用过的。 但我们家里总是会有书。 父亲特别爱读书, 他常让我每晚和他一起看书, 我必须看15或20分钟。 一天,我把《真实的忏悔》 夹在一本《生活》杂志里, 他让我大声读出来。 此后,我再也不读 《真实的忏悔》了。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But they were great readers. We always had books before we had a second pair of shoes, and that was very important. And although we had hand-me-down books for the black schools and hand-me-down everythings, it was a great need. He made it clear that reading was the window to the outside world, and so that was a great gift from them. But the reinforced lesson was that God runs a full employment economy, and that if you just follow the need, you will never lack for a purpose in life, and that has been so for me.
家里人都热爱读书, 有钱的话,我们总会买书, 而不会去买第二双鞋, 这点很重要。 尽管我们黑人学校里有二手书, 还有其它二手的东西, 但我们依然很需要书。 他明确告诫我们,阅读 是通往外面世界的窗口, 所以说,父母留给我的 巨大财富就是读书。 但父母多次强调的训诫是: 上帝让人人都有事做, 只要你关注他人的需求, 生活就永不会缺少目标, 这就是我所信奉的。
We had a very segregated small town. I was a rebel from the time I was four or five. I went out to a department store and there was "white" and "black" water signs, but I didn't know that and didn't pay much attention to that, and I was with one of my Sunday school teachers. I drank out of the wrong water fountain, and she jerked me away, and I didn't know what had happened, and then she explained to me about black and white water. I didn't know that, and after that, I went home, took my little wounded psyche to my parents, and told them what had happened, and said, "What's wrong with me?" And they said, "It wasn't much wrong with you. It's what's wrong with the system." And I used to go then secretly and switch water signs everywhere I went.
我们小镇种族隔离很严重, 我四五岁起就叛逆了。 一天,我来到一家百货商店, 那里的饮水龙头分别 有“白人”和“黑人”标识, 我之前没见过,也没太在意, 而且当时我和主日学校的 一位老师在一起。 我从‘白’水龙头上喝了水, 她一把拽走我, 我并不知道怎么了, 然后,她解释说黑人和 白人要用不同水龙头喝水。 我当时并不知情, 就算知道,我也会那么做。 之后,我回到家,带着幼小 受伤的心灵回到父母身旁, 告诉他们发生的一切, 问道,“我哪里错了呀?” 他们说,“孩子,你没有错, 是体制错了。” 之后,每到一处,我常常偷偷地 把水标换过来。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And it felt so good.
那感觉棒极了。
(Applause)
(掌声)
PM: There is no question that this legend is a bit of a rebel, and has been for a long time. So you started your work as an attorney and with the Civil Rights Movement, and you worked with Dr. King on the original Poor People's Campaign. And then you made this decision, 45 years ago, to set up a national advocacy campaign for children. Why did you choose that particular service, to children?
帕特:毋庸置疑,这倒是 有点像一个叛逆者的传奇, 而且叛逆已持续了很久。 因此您成为律师, 并参与人权运动, 和金博士一起从事 早期的“穷人运动”。 然后45年前,您做出了这个决定, 为儿童发起全国性的倡议运动。 为何您选了这项针对 儿童的特别服务?
MWE: Well, because so many of the things that I saw in Mississippi and across the South had to do with children. I saw children with bloated bellies in this country who were close to starvation, who were hungry, who were without clothes, and nobody wanted to believe that there were children who were starving, and that's a slow process. And nobody wanted to listen. Every congressman that would come to Mississippi, I'd say, "Go see," and most of them didn't want to do anything about it. But I saw grinding poverty. The state of Mississippi wanted, during voter registration efforts -- and with outside white kids coming in to help black citizens register to vote -- they wanted everybody to leave the state, so they were trying to starve them out. And they switched from free food commodities to food stamps that cost two dollars. People had no income, and nobody in America wanted to believe that there was anybody in America without any income. Well, I knew hundreds of them, thousands of them. And malnutrition was becoming a big problem.
玛丽安:因为我在密西西比 和整个南方的所见所闻 都和儿童有关。 在这个国家, 我看到了肚子肿胀 频临饿死的孩子, 饥饿的孩子, 没衣服穿的孩子, 而那时没人愿意相信 还有孩子挨饿, 这是个缓慢的过程。 没有人想听。 每个来密西西比的议员, 我都对他们说, “自己去看看吧”,对此, 大部分人都无动于衷。 但我看到了极度的贫困。 在选民登记的时候—— 外州的白人孩子过来 帮黑人公民登记投票—— 密西西比州想要把黑人 全赶走,想饿死他们。 他们从原来免费提供食品, 变成出售要价两美元的食物券。 人们没有收入,全国没人肯相信 美国竟然有人没有任何收入, 而我却知道有成百上千 没有任何收入的人, 营养不良正成为一个大问题。
And so one of these days came Dr. King down on a number of things we were fighting to get the Head Start program -- which the state of Mississippi turned down -- refinanced. And he went into a center that the poor community was running without any help, and he saw a teacher carve up an apple for eight or 10 children, and he had to run out, because he was in tears. He couldn't believe it. But only when Robert Kennedy decided he would come -- I had gone to testify about the Head Start program, because they were attacking. And I asked, please, come and see yourself, and when you come and see, see hungry people and see starving children. And they came, and he brought the press, and that began to get the movement going. But they wanted to push all the poor people to go north and to get away from being voters. And I'm proud of Mike Espy. Even though he lost last night, he'll win one of these days.
一天,金博士来到了南部, 一起努力为“启蒙计划”—— 已被州政府拒绝的计划—— 再次筹款。 他去了一个由穷人社区运营的中心, 该中心没有任何外界的帮助, 他看到老师把一个苹果 切瓣分给8到10个孩子, 他不得不跑到外面去, 因为他已泪流满面。 他无法相信眼前的一切。 但只有当罗伯特·肯尼迪决定过来时—— 我才去解释说明“启蒙计划”, 因为他们正在攻击这个计划。 我说道,请过来自己看看吧, 当你自己来看时, 就会看到饥饿的人, 和快要饿死的孩子。 他们来了,罗伯特·肯尼迪 还把媒体带来了, 自此之后,这项运动才开展起来。 但他们想把穷人都赶到北方去, 不让他们在这个州投票。 我为麦克·艾斯比感到骄傲。 昨晚他虽然输了, 但他总有一天会赢的。
(Applause)
(掌声)
But you wouldn't have seen such grinding poverty, and the outside white kids who'd come in to help register voters in the 1964 Summer Project where we lost those three young men. But once they left, the press left, and there was just massive need, and people were trying to push the poor out. And so, you know, Head Start came, and we applied for it, because the state turned it down. And that's true of a lot of states that don't take Medicaid these days. And we ran the largest Head Start program in the nation, and it changed their lives. They had books that had children who looked like them in it, and we were attacked all over the place.
否则,大家就看不到 如此这般的赤贫。 1964 年,在外州年轻白人 来帮助黑人登记投票的 “自由之夏”运动中, 三个年轻白人因此被杀。 但在媒体离开后, 只剩下大量的需求, 人们想方设法要把穷人给赶走。 接下来,国家开始了“启蒙计划”, 因为州政府驳回了该计划, 我们就再去申请实施。 就像如今很多州不实行 美国医疗补助计划一样。 我们的“启蒙计划”是全国最大的, 它改变了孩子们的一生。 在书中他们能看到 长得跟自己一样的孩子, 为此,我们被攻击得体无完肤。
But the bottom line was that Mississippi gave birth to the Children's Defense Fund in many ways, and it also occurred to me that children and preventive investment, and avoiding costly care and failure and neglect, was a more strategic way to proceed. And so the Children's Defense Fund was born out of the Poor People's Campaign. But it was pretty clear that whatever you called black independent or brown independent was going to have a shrinking constituency. And who can be mad at a two-month-old baby or at a two-year-old toddler? A lot of people can be. They don't want to feed them, neither, from what we've seen.
重点是, 密西西比州从多个方面 催生了儿童防护基金, 让我突然想到, 孩子、预防性投资, 以及避免昂贵的看护、 虐待与忽视儿童, 才是更具战略性的推进方向。 因此,儿童保护基金 是“穷人运动”的产物。 但很显然,不论你怎么称呼他们, 黑人或棕色人种的无党派选民 会逐渐减少。 谁会对两个月大的婴儿 或两岁的小孩生气? 很多人会。 就我们所见,他们并不想喂养他们,
But it was the right judgment to make. And so out of the privilege of serving as the Poor People's Campaign coordinator for policy for two years, and there were two of them, and it was not a failure, because the seeds of change get planted and have to have people who are scut workers and follow up. And I'm a good scut worker and a persistent person. And you know, as a result, I would say that all those people on food stamps today ought to thank those poor people in the mud in Resurrection City. But it takes a lot of follow-up, detailed work -- and never going away.
但所做的决定是正确的。 我有幸在“穷人运动” 担任两年的政策协调员, 那时我们有两位, 这场运动并非完全失败, 因为改变的种子已被种下, 而且需要负责日常杂务的 人参与进来,并贯彻到底。 我擅长处理杂务, 而且是持之以恒的人。 结果就是, 我觉得今天所有靠食物券生活的人, 都该感谢那些在复活城 泥泞中示威游行的穷人。 但那需要很多缜密的后续工作—— 并且这些细致的工作会持续下去。
PM: And you've been doing it for 45 years, and you've seen some amazing outcomes. What are you proudest of out of the Children's Defense Fund?
帕特:你做这事已有45年, 你也看到了一些惊人的成果。 对于儿童防护基金, 你最引以为傲的是什么?
MWE: Well, I think the children now have sort of become a mainstream issue. We have got lots of new laws. Millions of children are getting food. Millions of children are getting a head start. Millions of children are getting Head Start and have gotten a head start, and the Child Health Insurance Program, CHIP, Medicaid expansions for children. We've been trying to reform the child welfare system for decades. We finally got a big breakthrough this year, and it says, be ready with the proposals when somebody's ready to move, and sometimes it takes five years, 10 years, 20 years, but you're there. I've been trying to keep children out of foster care and out of institutions and with their families, with preventive services. That got passed.
玛丽安:我认为现在儿童 已成为主流议题了。 我们有了许多新的法律, 数百万计的孩子有食物吃, 数百万计的孩子有了良好的开端。 数百万计的孩子参与了“启蒙计划”, 获得了早期教育、 儿童健康保险项目CHIP、 和医疗补助儿童扩展计划。 数十年来,我们一直 致力于儿童福利系统改革, 今年终于有了重大突破, 就是说,提前准备好提案, 只等时机成熟就立刻提交, 有时要等5年、10年、甚至20年, 但你要坚持,等待时机来临。 我一直致力于避免孩子 被寄养和送到福利机构, 倡导在有预防性服务的 前提下,让孩子和家人同住。 这项提案获得了通过。
But there are millions of children who have hope, who have access to early childhood. Now, we are not finished, and we are not going to ever feel finished until we end child poverty in the richest nation on earth. It's just ridiculous that we have to be demanding that.
数百万计的孩子有了希望, 他们也享受到了早期教育。 但我们的任务还没完成, 我们要一直奋斗到 这个世界上最富有的 国家不再有儿童贫困为止。 这竟然还需要我们去要求, 实在是太可笑了。
(Applause)
(掌声)
PM: And there are so many of the problems in spite of the successes, and thank you for going through some of them, Marian -- the Freedom Schools, the generations of children now who have gone through Children's Defense Fund programs. But when you look around the world, in this country, the United States, and in other countries, there are still so many problems. What worries you the most?
帕特:虽然取得了成功, 但依然有许多问题, 玛丽安,感谢您正在 解决部分问题—— 自由学校, 现在一代代的儿童 得以参与儿童防护基金计划。 但当你纵观世界, 在美国这个国家, 还有其他的国家里, 还存在着许多问题。 什么是你最担心的?
MWE: What worries me is how irresponsible we adults in power have been in passing on a healthier earth. And it worries me when I read the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists" and see now that we are two minutes from midnight, and that's gotten closer. We have put our future and our children's future and safety at risk in a world that is still too much governed by violence. We must end that. We must stop investing in war and start investing in the young and in peace, and we are really so far away from doing that.
玛丽安:在把更健康的地球 传递给后代这件事上, 当权者的不负责任让我很担心。 当我读《原子科学家公报》时, (包含关于“末日时钟”的内容) 看到末日时钟还差两分钟就到午夜, 说明核战一触即发,我很担心。 在这个依然充斥着暴力的世界, 我们在拿我们的未来、 孩子的未来和安全冒险。 我们必须终结这种现状。 我们必须终止在战争上投资, 转而投资年轻一代和世界和平, 我们离那一步还很远。
(Applause)
(掌声)
And I don't want my grandchildren to have to fight these battles all over again, and so I get more radical. The older I get, the more radical I get, because there are just some things that we as adults have to do for the next generations. And I looked at the sacrifices of Mrs. Hamer and all those people in Mississippi who risked their lives to give us a better life. But the United States has got to come to grips with its failure to invest in its children, and it's the Achilles' heel of this nation. How can you be one of the biggest economies in the world and you let 13.2 million children go live in poverty, and you let children go homeless when you've got the means to do it?
我不想让我的孙辈们 还得从头再来为这些事抗争, 所以我变得更激进, 越老越激进, 因为有些事是我们大人 应该为后代做的。 看看海默女士和密西西比州 那些人的牺牲和奉献, 他们抛头颅洒热血, 我们才有今天的幸福生活。 美国必须认真对待 自己没在孩子身上投资的问题, 这是我们国家的致命伤。 作为全世界最大的经济体之一, 怎么能让1320万儿童活在贫困之中, 让孩子们无家可归, 而其实你是有解决办法的?
We've got to rethink who we are as a people, be an example for the world. There should be no poverty. In fact, we want to say we're going to end poverty in the world. Just start at home. And we've made real progress, but it's such hard work, and it's going to be our Achilles' heel. We should stop giving more tax cuts, sorry folks, to billionaires rather than to babies and their health care. We should get our priorities straight.
我们得重新思考身为 这个国家人民的意义, 要成为世界的榜样, 不该存在贫困。 其实,我们想说的是, 我们要终结世上的贫困。 就从美国开始。 我们已经取得了实质性的进展, 但解决孩子贫困是项艰难工作, 这将是我们最大的弱点。 我们应该停止给百万富豪减税, 大伙儿,抱歉了,应该把钱花在婴儿 和他们的卫生保健上。 我们应该把优先顺序搞清楚。
(Applause)
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That's not right, and it's not cost-effective. And the key to this country is going to be an educated child population, and yet we've got so many children who cannot read or write at the most basic levels. We're investing in the wrong things, and I wouldn't be upset about anybody having one billion, 10 billion [US dollars], if there were no hungry children, if there were no homeless children, if there were no uneducated children. And so it's really about what does it mean to live and lead this life. Why were we put on this earth? We were put on this earth to make things better for the next generations. And here we're worrying about climate change and global warming. And we're looking at, again, I constantly cite -- I look at that "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists" every year. And it says now: "Two minutes to midnight." Are we out of our minds, adults, about passing on a better a world to our children? That's what our purpose is, to leave a better world for everybody, and the concept of enough for everybody. There should be no hungry children in this world with the rich wealth that we have. And so I can't think of a bigger cause, and I think that I'm driven by my faith. And it's been a privilege to serve, but I always had the best role models in the world. Daddy always said God runs a full employment economy, and that if you just follow the need, you'll never lack for a purpose in life. And I watched the partnership -- because my mother was a true partner. I always knew I was as smart as my brothers, at least. And we always knew that we were not just to be about ourselves, but that we were here to serve.
给富人减税是不对的, 而且那不符合成本效益。 受教育儿童的人数 才是这个国家富强的关键, 然而我们却有好多的儿童 连最基本的读或写都不会。 我们投资失误了, 只要我们没有儿童在挨饿, 只要我们没有儿童无家可归, 只要我们没有儿童失学, 我就不会对 那些富人感到生气。 这其实在于我们 如何度过和主导一生。 我们为什么出生在这个星球上? 就是要为了下一代 把事情变得更美好。 我们在担心气候变化 和全球变暖。 还有我时常提及的—— 我年年关注《原子科学家公报》。 公报的末日时钟显示: “离午夜还有两分钟(核战随时发生)。” 我们这些成年人疯了吗? 难道我们不打算将 更好的世界交给后代吗? 这就是我们的使命, 把一个更好的世界 和普世观念留给所有人。 以我们拥有的财富, 这世上不应该有饥饿的儿童。 我实在想不出更大的原因, 我认为是信仰激励了我。 能够服务社会一向是我的荣幸, 而我有世上最好的榜样——我父母。 我父亲总是说, 上帝让人人有事做, 只要你跟着需要走, 就永远不会缺少人生的目标。 我见证了这样的合作—— 因为我母亲是位真正的伙伴。 我一直都知道,自己 至少和哥哥们一样聪明。 我们一直都知道 我们不只关心自己, 而是要服务社会。
PM: Well, Marian, I want to say, on behalf of all the world's children, thank you for your passion, your purpose and your advocacy.
帕特:玛丽安, 我想代表全世界的孩子, 对您说,感谢您的热忱, 感谢您的使命和您的倡议。
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