*in climax
#高潮结尾术欣赏
at a time like this, scorching iron, not convincing argument, is needed. o! had i the ability, and could i stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. for it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. we need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. the feeling of the nation must be quicken; the conscience of the nation must be aroused; the propriety of the nation must be started; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against god and men must be proclaimed and denounced.
what, to the american slave, is your fourth of july? i answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. to him, your celebration is a shame; you boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy─a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. there is not a nation of savages. there is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the united states at this very hour.
go, where you may, search where you will roam through all the monarchies and despotism of the old world, travel through south america, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, america reigns without a rival.
现在这种时候,需要的不是有说服力的理论,而是炽热的烙铁。啊,要是我有能力使全国人民都听到我的声音,我今天就会滔滔不绝地倾吐出尖刻的嘲笑、强烈的谴责、无情的讥刺和严厉的申斥。因为现在需要的不是光,而是火;不是和风细雨,而是雷电霹雳;我们需要暴风,需要飓风,需要地震。我们需要触动这个国家的感情,唤起她的良知,震动她的礼仪之心,揭露她的伪善,公开谴责她违反上帝和人类的罪行。
你们的7月4日对于美国奴隶来说是个什么日子?我要回答说:这日子比一年之中其他日子更使他们看见他们经年累月所受的不公正和残酷待遇。你们的庆祝对于他们是一场欺骗;你们鼓吹的自由不过是渎神的放纵;你们所谓伟大的民族精神不过是自欺欺人的虚荣自负;你们的欢呼是虚张声势;你们对专制的谴责是厚颜无耻的胡扯;你们高喊的自由平等是空洞虚假的冒牌货;你们的祷词和赞美诗,你们那喋喋不休的布道说教和滔滔不绝的感恩祈祷,加上你们那些宗教游行和隆重仪式,都只不过是对上帝的吹牛、撒谎、蒙蔽、不敬和伪善,都只是为了把你们的罪恶遮盖起来的一层薄纱。哪怕是野蛮人的国家也会因这样的抓揆鶄pnz件j苋琛5牵衷诿挥幸奥说墓摇4耸贝丝蹋诘厍蛏厦挥心囊桓雒褡宓乃魉颂牛醒任读恕?br> 你们走遍了海角天涯,找遍旧大陆(指欧洲)所有君主专制的集权国家,访遍南美洲,到处去挑出一切陋规恶习,然后拿那些东西与这个国家每天所干的事情比较一下,你们就会像我这样说:在极端野蛮和最无耻的伪善方面,美国确实首屈一指,举世无双。