"我因阿什利而來(lái)"。就此話本身而言，這名白人女孩與這位老年黑人一瞬間的相互認(rèn)同并不足以說(shuō)明問(wèn)題，不足以為病者提供醫(yī)療照顧，不足以為失業(yè)者提供工作，也不足以為我們的孩子提供教育機(jī)會(huì)。

但這是我們的起點(diǎn)。我們的聯(lián)邦國(guó)家可以從此日益強(qiáng)盛。自一批愛(ài)國(guó)者在費(fèi)城簽署這份文件以來(lái)，無(wú)數(shù)世代的人們?cè)谶@221年中已經(jīng)認(rèn)識(shí)到這一點(diǎn)。這是走向完美的起點(diǎn)。

英文原文

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: 'A More Perfect Union'

Philadelphia, PA

March 18, 2008

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.