JUST PJW

Twenty-Three

They said of him that it was the most peaceful face ever seen there. What passed through Sydney Carton’ s mind as he walked those last steps to his death? Perhaps he saw into the future…..

‘ I see Barsad, Defarge, the judges, all dying under this terrible machine. I see a beautiful city being built in this terrible place. I see that new people will live here, in real freedom. I see the lives for whom I give my life, happy and peaceful in that England which I shall never see again. I see Lucie when she is old, crying for me on this day every year, and I know that she and her husband remember me until their deaths. I see their son, who has my name, now a man. I see him become a famous lawyer and make my name famous by his work. I hear him tell his son my story.

‘ It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. ‘

Yep, it is a far, far deeper love that I have ever known.

在美国，成绩最优秀的学生被称为top5%..然而老美对于所谓的top5%并非十分重视，作为一种较为主流的观念，如果你花100%的实力才能进入top5%的行列，那还不如只用50%的精力时间保持在一个中上等的水平，并将时间更多的花在别的方面，譬如社会活动，或是你所能使施展才能的领域，老美的这种观念真的很厉害，他们塑造出的是能力出众的一代，爸爸的同学当年留学美国，去的是一所不太知名的大学，然而就是很普通的大学，亦是藏龙卧虎，一个同学可以自己用钢管做出漂亮得山地车，切割，焊接，喷漆，化腐朽为神奇，真的是不可思议，而这并不是特例，而是很普遍的。其实美国最可怕的一代，是五六十年代出生的一代，他们反叛，特立独行，他们反战（越战），支持黑人解放（在此向伟大的Dr Martin Luthering King致敬），他们被当时社会称为是“垮了的一代“，然而正是这一代人，将美国的经济推向了新的高峰，给与美国前进的动力。

       两天前是7月4号，之所以写这些东西，是为了向233年前一群伟大人们表达我的敬意，托马斯杰弗逊，本杰明富兰克林还有许许多多的人，他们在1774年的7月4日签署了一项改变世界的文件：Declaration of Independence.

   “我们认爲下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可让与的权利，其中包括生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。”

     “然而，当始终追求同一目标的一系列滥用职权和强取豪夺的行爲表明政府企图把人民置于专制暴政之下时，人民就有权，也有义务，去推翻这样的政府，并爲其未来的安全提供新的保障。”

   我想这是何等伟大的文件呢，也许今天再也没人会如同宣言上所说的去行动了，正常情况下，恐怕没有多少美国人会因为美国对内对外的滥用职权和强取豪夺而去推翻这个政府，然而，宣言中对自由，民主的向往，渴望，却深深根植于美国人的心中，化为美国精神中最重要，最核心也是最值得我们学习的地方，有人认为美国社会的精神与价值观的核心是建立在资本主义私有制之上，然而我觉得不是的，对于大量的民众（允许我用大量这个词，因为广大，感觉太官僚了）一切的核心应该还是民主自由，所以才会有那么深入人心的“权利法案“，其实有时候觉得我们所鼓吹的社会主义可能别人的资本主义还要资本主义。然而这里写的一切之为了纪念那些前辈，我喜欢美国的许多优秀的制度，然而我更爱我的祖国，我的愿望只是希望在有生之年，能看见一个真正富强民主的中国屹立在世界之林，让自由之花真正在这个伟大的国度生根发芽。

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

    When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

     We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

     We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

独 立 宣 言

1776年7月4日，美利坚合衆国十三州议会一致通过的宣言。

在人类事务发展的过程中，当一个民族必须解除同另一个民族的联系，并按照自然法则和上帝的旨意，以独立平等的身份立于世界列国之林时，出于对人类舆论的尊重，必须把驱使他们独立的原因予以宣布。

我们认爲下述真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可让与的权利，其中包括生存权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。爲了保障这些权利，人类才在他们中间建立政府，而政府的正当权力，则是经被治者同意所授予的。任何形式的政府一旦对这些目标的实现起破坏作用时，人民便有权予以更换或废除，以建立一个新的政府。新政府所依据的原则和组织其权力的方式，务使人民认爲唯有这样才最有可能使他们获得安全和幸福。若真要审慎地来说，成立多年的政府是不应当由于无关紧要的和一时的原因而予以更换的，过去的一切经验都说明，任何苦难，只要尚能忍受，人类还是情愿忍受，也不想爲申冤而废除他们久已习惯了的政府形式。然而，当始终追求同一目标的一系列滥用职权和强取豪夺的行爲表明政府企图把人民置于专制暴政之下时，人民就有权，也有义务，去推翻这样的政府，并爲其未来的安全提供新的保障。这就是这些殖民地过去忍受苦难的经过，也是他们现在不得不改变政府制度的原因。当今大不列颠国王的历史，就是屡屡伤害和掠夺这些殖民地的历史，其直接目标就是要在各州之上建立一个独裁暴政，爲了证明上述句句属实，现将事实公诸于世，让公正的世人作出评判。

他拒绝批准对公衆利益最有益、最必需的法律。

他禁止他的殖民总督批准刻不容缓、极端重要的法律，要不就先行搁置这些法律直至征得他的同意，而这些法律被搁置以后，他又完全置之不理。

他拒绝批准便利大地区人民的其它法律，除非这些地区的人民情愿放弃自己在立法机构中的代表权，而代表权对人民是无比珍贵的，只有暴君才畏惧它。

他把各州的立法委员会召集到一个异乎寻常、极不舒适而又远离它们的档案库的地方去开会，其目的无非是使他们疲惫不堪，被迫就范。

他一再解散各州的衆议院，因爲后者坚决反对他侵犯人民的权利。

他在解散衆议院之后，又长期拒绝另选他人，于是这项不可剥夺的立法权便归由普通人民来行使，致使在这期间各州仍处于外敌入侵和内部骚乱的种种危险之中。

他力图阻止各州增加人口，爲此目的，他阻挠外国人入籍法的通过，拒绝批准其它鼓励移民的法律，并提高分配新土地的条件。

他拒绝批准建立司法权力的法律，以阻挠司法的执行。

他迫使法官爲了保住任期、薪金的数额和支付而置于他个人意志的支配之下。 

他滥设新官署，委派大批官员到这里骚扰我们的人民，吞噬他们的财物。

他在和平时期，未经我们立法机构同意，就在我们中间维持其常备军。

他施加影响，使军队独立于文官政权之外，并凌驾于文官政权之上。

他同他人勾结，把我们置于一种既不符合我们的法规也未经我们法律承认的管辖之下，而且还批准他们炮制的各种僞法案，以便任其在我们中间驻扎大批武装部队；不论这些人对我们各州居民犯下何等严重的谋杀罪，他可用假审判来庇护他们，让他们追逐法外；他可以切断我们同世界各地的贸易；未经我们同意便向我们强行征税；在许多案件中剥夺我们享有陪审制的权益；以莫须有的罪名把我们押送海外受审；他在一个邻省废除了英国法律的自由制度，在那里建立专制政府，扩大其疆界，使其立即成爲一个样板和合适的工具，以便向这里各殖民地推行同样的专制统治；他取消我们的许多特许状，废除我们最珍贵的法律并从根本上改变我们各州政府的形式；他中止我们立法机构行使权力，宣称他们自己拥有在任何情况下爲我们制定法律的权力。

他们放弃设在这里的政府，宣布我们已不属他们保护之列，并向我们发动战争。

他在我们的海域大肆掠夺，蹂躏我们的沿海地区，烧毁我们的城镇，残害我们人民的生命。

他此时正在运送大批外国雇佣兵，来从事其制造死亡、荒凉和暴政的勾当，其残忍与卑劣从一开始就连最野蛮的时代也难以相比，他已完全不配当一个文明国家的元首。

他强迫我们在公海被他们俘虏的同胞拿起武器反对自己的国家，使他们成爲残杀自己亲友的刽子手，或使他们死于自己亲友的手下。

他在我们中间煽动内乱，并竭力挑唆残酷无情的印地安蛮子来对付我们边疆的居民，而衆所周知，印地安人作战的准则是不分男女老幼，是非曲直，格杀勿论。

在遭受这些压迫的每一阶段，我们都曾以最谦卑的言辞吁请予以纠正。而我们一次又一次的请愿，却只是被报以一次又一次的伤害。

一个君主，其品格被他的每一个只有暴君才干得出的行爲所暴露时，就不配君临自由的人民。

我们并不是没有想到我们英国的弟兄。他们的立法机关想把无理的管辖权扩展到我们这里来，我们时常把这个企图通知他们。我们也曾把我们移民来这里和在这里定居的情况告诉他们。我们曾恳求他们天生的正义感和雅量，念在同种同宗的份上；弃绝这些掠夺行爲，因爲这些掠夺行爲难免会使我们之间的关系和来往中断。可他们对这种正义和同宗的呼声也同样充耳不闻。因此，我们不得不宣布脱离他们，以对待世界上其它民族的态度对待他们：同我交战者，就是敌人；同我和好者，即爲朋友。

因此；我们这些在大陆会议上集会的美利坚合衆国的代表们，以各殖民地善良人民的名义，并经他们授权，向世界最高裁判者申诉，说明我们的严正意向，同时郑重宣布：我们这些联合起来的殖民地现在是，而且按公理也应该是，独立自由的国家；

我们取消对英国王室效忠的全部义务，我们与大不列颠王国之间的一切政治联系从此全部断绝，而且必须断绝；作爲一个独立自由的国家，我们完全有权宣战、缔和、结盟、通商和采取独立国家有权采取的一切行动。我们坚定地信赖神明上帝的保佑，同时以我们的生命、财産和神圣的名誉彼此宣誓来支援这一宣言。

当你老了，头白了，睡思昏沉
炉火旁打盹，请取下这部诗歌
慢慢读，回想你过去眼神的柔和
回想它们过去的浓重的阴影

多少人爱你年轻欢畅的时候
爱慕你的美貌，出于假意或真心
只有一个人爱你朝圣者的灵魂
爱你已改的容颜痛苦的皱纹

躬身在红光闪耀的炉火旁
凄然低语，爱为何消逝
他漫步走上高高的山峦
将脸庞隐没在了群星间......