独立記念日　Independence Day

７月４日はアメリカの独立記念日であり家族が集うホリデーでもあります。オバマ大統領は主張します。この日はただ国家が生まれたことだけでなく「ゆるぎない信念」によってアメリカ国家の生誕が可能になったことを思い出す日であると。その精神が西部への開拓や産業界で世界の頂点に立つことを可能にしたものであり、そしていまアメリカ国民が再び求められているものであると。
すなわち一刻の猶予もない今日の経済不況、医療保険制度改革、教育問題、エネルギー問題といった課題に、国民が尋常でない努力で取り組むことが求められています。今こそ成長と繁栄の基盤を創り上げる時です。
しかし過去の間違いの産物である現状維持を肯定し、医療制度はそのままで良いし温暖化問題は先延ばしをして良いと主張する人々がいます。そして変革が大きすぎて性急であるから、一息ついて目標を小さくしようと言います。
そういう抵抗勢力は忘れている。変革の時にただ立ち尽くしていたり、たやすいことだけをして１３の植民地がアメリカ合衆国としての独立にたどり着いたのではないことを。
我々は未来を恐れる国民ではなく、未来を創り上げていく国民なのだ。我々は２３３年前の独立宣言に宿る精神を思い起こさねばならないのです。
＝＝＝
（よっちゃんのまとめ解説）
正に数々の過去の負の遺産を引き継いでアメリカのリーダーとなったオバマ大統領。
独立記念日に浮かれてばかりいられないアメリカの厳しい現状を訴え、アメリカの独立宣言の開拓者精神になぞらえ変革(Change)の必要性を国民に訴えています。現状維持をとなえ変革に抵抗する勢力との闘いと、それに対する国民の支援を呼びかけています。
確かに変革には痛みと犠牲を伴います。しかし次世代・将来のアメリカの繁栄のためにそれは避けて通れないのだという明確な主張に感じられます。
Hello and Happy Fourth of July, everybody. This weekend is a time to get together with family and friends, kick back, and enjoy a little time off. And I hope that’s exactly what all of you do. But I also want to take a moment today to reflect on what I believe is the meaning of this distinctly American holiday.
Today, we are called to remember not only the day our country was born 窶骭€ we are also called to remember the indomitable spirit of the first American citizens who made that day possible.
We are called to remember how unlikely it was that our American experiment would succeed at all; that a small band of patriots would declare independence from a powerful empire; and that they would form, in the new world, what the old world had never known 窶骭€ a government of, by, and for the people.
That unyielding spirit is what defines us as Americans. It is what led generations of pioneers to blaze a westward trail.
It is what led my grandparents’ generation to persevere in the face of a Depression and triumph in the face of tyranny.
It is what led generations of American workers to build an industrial economy unrivalled around the world.
It is what has always led us, as a people, not to wilt or cower at a difficult moment, but to face down any trial and rise to any challenge, understanding that each of us has a hand in writing America’s destiny.
That is the spirit we are called to show once more. We are facing an array of challenges on a scale unseen in our time. We are waging two wars. We are battling a deep recession. And our economy 窶骭€ and our nation itself 窶骭€ are endangered by festering problems we have kicked down the road for far too long: spiraling health care costs; inadequate schools; and a dependence on foreign oil.
Meeting these extraordinary challenges will require an extraordinary effort on the part of every American. And that is an effort we cannot defer any longer.
Now is the time to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity. Now is the time to revamp our education system, demand more from teachers, parents, and students alike, and build schools that prepare every child in America to outcompete any worker in the world.
Now is the time to reform an unsustainable health care system that is imposing crushing costs on families, businesses, large and small, and state and federal budgets. We need to protect what works, fix what’s broken, and bring down costs for all Americans. No more talk. No more delay. Health care reform must happen this year.
And now is the time to meet our energy challenge 窶骭€ one of the greatest challenges we have ever confronted as a people or as a planet. For the sake of our economy and our children, we must build on the historic bill passed by the House of Representatives, and make clean energy the profitable kind of energy so that we can end our dependence on foreign oil and reclaim America’s future.
These are some of the challenges that our generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale back our goals.
These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America.
We are not a people who fear the future. We are a people who make it. And on this July 4th, we need to summon that spirit once more. We need to summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall two hundred and thirty-three years ago today.
That is how this generation of Americans will make its mark on history. That is how we will make the most of this extraordinary moment. And that is how we will write the next chapter in the great American story. Thank you, and Happy Fourth of July.