2013.07.03
白宫
新闻秘书办公室
2013年7月3日
欧巴马总统发表2013年独立纪念日致词
在独立纪念日到来之际，我们向当年为数不多的勇敢的爱国者致敬。他们通过签署一份宣言，点燃了革命的火焰，并使我们获得自由。1776年的爱国者对从未体验到的民主坚信不疑。他们的奋斗不是为了以少数人的特权或暴民统治取代君王的专制。他们创立了民有、民治、民享的政府，并托付每一代人捍卫我们的立国之本。
237年后，他们的话语依然洋溢着勇敢精神和革命气概，恰如第一次发布的宣言：“我们认为以下真理不言而喻：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们某些不可剥夺的权利，其中包括生存、自由和追求幸福的权利。”
历史告诫我们，这些真理虽然不言而喻，却从未自动降临。两个多世纪以来，为了使开国元勋这些话的含义化为我们时代的现实，我国走过了漫长的征途。从皮鞭和刀剑留下的血迹中，我们认识到，建立在自由和平等原则基础上的任何联盟都不可能以半奴隶制、半自由的方式持续下去。我们认识到现代经济需要铁路和高速公路便利旅行，促进工商。我们了解教育是自由社会的核心。我们发现，只有实行保证公平的规则，自由市场才能繁荣。我们坚信，一个伟大的国家必需照顾弱势群体，保护本国人民免受生灵涂炭和种种不幸。
当我们的生活方式受到挑战和考验时，我军勇士挺身而出，在海内外捍卫我们的坚定信念。从为尚待成型的国家而战的早期民兵到今天骄傲的戎装男女军人，我们的军人让这个伟大的美国试验成为可能。今天，我们也要对他们作出的巨大牺牲表示敬意，并向那些为了我们的自由生活而奉献出自己最后一丝力量的人们表示悼念。
在这一天，我们庆祝我们的建国理念，即连接这个国家的纽带不是肤色，不是教规，也不是姓氏来源。我们之所以成为美国人，是因为我们效忠于在费城一个空荡大厅中发出的宣言：我们人人生而平等。这一信念至今指引我们，敦促我们将宝贵的自由之光传向不可洞见的未来。
我祝愿大家有一个最如意快乐的7月4日。愿上帝保佑和保护所有为国服务的人，愿上帝保佑美利坚合众国。
巴拉克・欧巴马
President Obama’s Message for Independence Day 2013
03 July 2013
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
July 3, 2013
Office of the Press Secretary
July 3, 2013
Message by President Obama on Independence Day, 2013
On Independence Day, we celebrate a small, audacious group of patriots who, in signing a declaration, ignited a revolution and made us free. Believing in a democracy they had never known, the patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They created a government of, by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.
Two hundred and thirty-seven years later, their words are just as bold and revolutionary as they were when they were first inscribed: "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."
But while these truths may be self-evident, history tells us they have never been self-executing. For more than two centuries, our Nation has been on an enduring journey to bridge the meaning of our Founders' words with the realities of our time. Through blood drawn by lash and sword, we learned no Union founded on the principles of liberty and equality can survive half-slave and half-free. We determined a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce. We learned education is central to a free society and discovered a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure fair play. We resolved that a great Nation must care for the vulnerable and protect its people from life's worst hazards and misfortunes.
And when our way of life has been challenged and tested, brave members of our Armed Forces have stepped forward to defend our convictions at home and abroad. From the Minutemen who fought for a Nation still only an idea to the proud men and women who serve in uniform today, our service members make the great experiment of America possible. Today, we also honor their extraordinary sacrifice, and we pay tribute to those who gave their last full measure of devotion so we might live free.
On this day, we celebrate our founding creed that what binds this Nation together is not the colors of our skin, the tenets of our faith, or the origins of our name. What makes us American is our allegiance to an idea first declared in a spare hall in Philadelphia-that all of us are created equal. This idea guides us still, and calls on us to carry into an uncertain future the precious light of freedom.
I wish you all the best for a happy Fourth of July. May God bless and protect all those who serve, and may God bless the United States of America.
Barack Obama
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2013/07/20130703278131.html#ixzz2YAHU3nm5
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