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1、2023年美国经典英文演讲100篇A Crisis of Confidence 美国经典英文演讲100篇:A Crisis of Confidence Jimmy Carter Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence delivered 15 July, 1979 AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. Good Evening: This a special night for me.Exactly three
2、years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States.I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams, and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.During the past three years
3、 Ive spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nations economy, and iues of war and especially peace.But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the pre conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more
4、and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important.Gradually, youve heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and le and le about our nations hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.Ten days ago, I had planned to speak to y
5、ou again about a very important subject - energy.For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congre.But as I was preparing to speak, I 1 began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many
6、of you: Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem? Its clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper - deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or receion.And I realize more than ever that as President I
7、 need your help.So, I decided to reach out and to listen to the voices of America.I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society - busine and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens.And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men a
8、nd women like you.It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what Ive heard.First of all, I got a lot of personal advice.Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.This from a southern governor: “Mr.President, you are not leading this nation - youre just ma
9、naging the government.” “You dont see the people enough anymore.” “Some of your Cabinet members dont seem loyal.There is not enough discipline among your disciples.” “Dont talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good.” “Mr.President, were in
10、 trouble.Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears.” “If you lead, Mr.President, we will follow.” Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation.This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: “I feel so far from government.I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political
11、 power.” And this from a young Chicano: “Some of us have suffered from receion all our lives.” “Some people have wasted energy, but others havent had anything to waste.” 2 And this from a religious leader: “No material shortage can touch the important things like Gods love for us or our love for one
12、 another.” And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Miiippi town: “The big shots are not the only ones who are important.Remember, you cant sell anything on Wall Street unle someone digs it up somewhere else first.” This kind of summarized a lot of o
13、ther statements: “Mr.President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis.” Several of our discuions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice.Ill read just a few. “We cant go on consuming forty percent more energy then we produce.When we import oil we are also im
14、porting inflation plus unemployment.” “Weve got to use what we have.The Middle East has only five percent of the worlds energy, but the United States has twenty-four percent.” And this is one of the most vivid statements: “Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife.” “There will be ot
15、her cartels and other shortages.American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future.” This was a good one: “Be bold, Mr.President.We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.” And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: “The real iue is freedom.We must
16、deal with the energy problem on a war footing.” And the last that Ill read: “When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr.President, dont iue us BB guns.” These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my longst
17、anding concerns about our nations underlying problems.I know, of course, being President, that government actions and legislation can be very important.Thats why Ive worked hard to put my campaign promises into law, and I have to admit, with just mixed succe.But after listening to the American peopl
18、e, I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world cant fix whats wrong with America.So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a 3 subject even more serious than energy or inflation.I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.I do not mean o
19、ur political and civil liberties.They will endure.And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways.It is a crisis of confidence.It is a cr
20、isis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the lo of a unity of purpose for our nation.The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the poli
21、tical fabric of America. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people.Confidence in the future has supported
22、 everything else - public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States.Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations.Weve always believed in something called progre.Weve always had a faith that the days of our
23、children would be better than our own.Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy.As a people we know our past and we are proud of it.Our progre has been part of the living history of Amer
24、ica, even the world.We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose.But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the d
25、oor on our past.In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.But weve discovered that owning things
26、 and consuming things does not satisfy 4 our longing for meaning.Weve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptine of lives which have no confidence or purpose.The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us.For the first time in the history of our country a maj
27、ority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.Two-thirds of our people do not even vote.The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingne of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the West
28、ern world.As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions.This is not a meage of happine or reaurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.These changes did not happen overnight.Theyve come upon us gradually over
29、the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.NextPage We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were al
30、ways just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam.We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expreion of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings.We believed t
31、hat our nations resources were limitle until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.These wounds are still very deep.They have never been healed.Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of o
32、ur nations life.Washington, D.C., has become an island.The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide.The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasivene and politics as usual.What you see too often in Washington and e
33、lsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action.You 5 see a Congre twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests.You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyield
34、ing group or another.You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift.You dont like it, and neither do I.What can we do? First of all, w
35、e must face the truth, and then we can change our course.We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation.Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face.It is a true challenge of this
36、 generation of Americans.One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: “Weve got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying.The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America.” We know the str
37、ength of America.We are strong.We can regain our unity.We can regain our confidence.We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now.Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depreio
38、n, who fought world wars and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the moon.We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality.And we are the generation that will win the w
39、ar on the energy problem and in that proce, rebuild the unity and confidence of America.We are at a turning point in our history.There are two paths to choose.One is a path Ive warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest.Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom
40、, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others.That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility.It is a certain route to failure. 6 All the traditions of our past, all the leons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to
41、 another path - the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values.That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves.We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and
42、 it can also be the standard around which we rally.On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.In little more than two decades weve gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use
43、 comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof.Our exceive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people.This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline.Its a caus
44、e of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face.This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation.The energy crisis is real.It is worldwide.It is a clear and present danger to our nation.These are facts and we simply mus
45、t face them.What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States.Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977- never.From now on, every new addition
46、 to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation.The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dep
47、endence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade - a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day.Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas.Im announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will
48、forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow.These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit. 7 Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most maive peacetime commitment
49、of funds and resources in our nations history to develop Americas own alternative sources of fuel - from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace two and a half million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990.The corporation will iue up to five