书城外语在耶鲁听演讲
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第63章 真相和结果(2)

Passing the laws is what to keep the politicians"careers alive.Enforcing laws iswhat keeps you alive.But nobody"s getting arrested,nobody"s going to jail,it"s all a giant scam.It"s not real life.It"s a big lie,packaged by an alliance between this Administration and a media that systematically propagates its doctrine.Forgive my severity,but that"s precisely the definition of the Soviet propaganda machine of the 50s and 60s.

While this Administration weaves reality spun from empty air and heavy breathing,the NRA is helping fund Project Exile to keep it alive.I submit to you that the consequence of what we"re doing saves people ...and the consequence of what they"re doing kills people.

It"s a certain consequence that if you choose not to prosecute criminals,people will die.It is also a certain consequence that if you choose to go to war,people will die.Consider Kosovo.Though undeclared,the war is real.What is unreal is Bill Clinton"s grasp of its consequences ...and perhaps yours.

From the outset it appears nobody anticipated that first,human consequence of war called refugees,that first stream of tragedy that spills from armed conflict.It seems our leadership is surprised and unprepared,caught short on tents,food,clothes and medicine for tens and tens and tens and tens of thousands of refugees.

Now,I am not one of those conservatives who ref lexively opposes everything Bill Clinton does with knee-jerkuniformity.Whether or not we should have gone is irrelevant.That debate is over.

So let"s discuss what reality demands of us now.The only good war is a fast and decisive war,with overwhelming military might that results in quick victory.But that chance is lost.Instead we"re doling out cruise missiles like popsicles in a popularity-poll-guided war,conducted by a man whodid not display the will to fight as a younger man,whom I doubt would go fight now,and who would not offer his own loved ones to march on Kosovo.

Warfare experts grasp the truth that Mr.Clinton doesn"t:now we"re in it,we must win it.That means that ground troops-daddies,neighbors,classmates,uncles,husbands,and good friends-are going to die.Are you willing to send yours?

More important,are you willing to take a round in the gut?I mean you here tonight.You,and you,and you.You"re the flesh that fills uniforms.You may say that"s melodrama;but this actor filled a uniform for two years overseas.

You there,listening politely while you plan your next date and your first million,are you willing to put that all aside-just as thousands of good men did 60years ago-and go fight?

Or are you thinking,as I suspect,that it"s some lesser person"s job?Or that,nestled safely in our distance and abundance,we can just wiggle joysticks on remote control missiles and win this ...Gameboy war?

If you believe that,you have lots of equally naive company.A CNN/Gallup poll three days ago reported that 2out of 3Americans think we have a moral obligation to fight Milosevic.But an equal number,2out of 3,wereunwilling to agree that casualties are an acceptable consequence.So we"re all for moral obligation,alright ...as long as thereis no pain,no price,no consequence.

No,the truth is,life has consequences and must be lived in that reality,not as it is pretended to be lived by people who aren"t honest.We have an arrogant Administration and conspiring media who are getting us into events that have genuine consequences.

But then,this President has long seen himself as free of consequences.There is something wrong with a government that purposely,as a matter of policy,ignores the consequences of letting armed felons go free,or of going to war.

To me,that disappointment is the grand tragedy of the Baby Boomers.For all the dreams we had for the generation that now runs this country-my generation"s children and your generation"s parents-for all the Baby Boomers"achievements in communications and space and medicine,it is all for naught if you inherit and perpetuate societal dishonesty.

So what can you do?

I learned the answer 36years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,D.C.,standing with Dr.Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.You simply refuse to go along.You disobey.Peaceably,yes.Respectfully,of course.Nonviolently,absolutely.But when you"re asked to live their lies,you practice civil defiance.You refuse to go along with the spin and facade and vacant language of dishonest people.

I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr.King ...who learned it from Gandhi,and Thoreau,and Jesus,and every other great man who refused to go along.Racial discrimination was illegal,but violation had no consequences.Segregation was illegal,but prosecution of offenders was not a policy.So Dr.King taught us to defy societal dishonesty withaction-and changed our country.

Disobedience is in our DNA.We feel innate kinship with that defiant spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor,sent Thoreau to jail,refused to sit in the back of the bus,and protested a dishonestly fought war in Viet Nam.

Our uniquely American genes naturally defy politica l postur ing.For example:

Who"s conducting the greatest intellectual rebellion in history right now?It"s not the likes of the New York Times or Washington Post or other traditionally crusading journals of American opinion.No,it"s the Internet,built by and for the minds of young people like you,people yearning for truth.