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  3. Sep. 11 delivered both a shock and a surprise—the attack, and our response t

Sep. 11 delivered both a shock and a surprise—the attack, and our response t

游客2023-12-12  16
问题     Sep. 11 delivered both a shock and a surprise—the attack, and our response to it—and we can argue forever over which mattered more. There has been so much talk of the goodness that erupted that day that we forget how unprepared we were for it. We did not expect much from a generation that had spent its middle age examining all the ways it failed to measure up to the one that had come before—all fat, no muscle, less a beacon to the world than a bully, drunk on blessings taken for granted.
    It was tempting to say that Sept. 11 changed all that, just as it is tempting to say that every hero needs a villain, and goodness needs evil as its grinding stone. But try looking a widow in the eye and talking about all the good that has come of this. It may not be a coincidence, but neither is it a partnership: good does not need evil, we owe no debt to demons, and the attack did not make us better. It was an occasion to discover what we already were. "Maybe the purpose of all this," New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said at a funeral for a friend, "is to find out if America today is as strong as when we fought for our independence or when we fought for ourselves as a Union to end slavery or as strong as our fathers and grandfathers who fought to rid the world of Nazism". The terrorists, he argues, were counting on our cowardice. They’ve learned a lot about us since then. And so have we.
    For leading that lesson, for having more faith in us than we had in ourselves, for being brave when required and rude where appropriate and tender without being trite, for not sleeping and not quitting and not shrinking from the pain all around him, Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of the World, is TIME’S 2001 Person of the Year.
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答案     我们也许会脱口而出地说，是“9?11”事件改变了这一切，正如我们会脱口而出地说，英雄需要有恶棍来陪衬，善良需要有邪恶来砥砺。但当你望着“9?11”死难者遗孀的双眼时，你难道还能侃侃而谈“9?11”事件所引发的好处吗?不错，善恶并存也许确非巧合，但它们也绝非相互依存的伙伴：善用不着恶陪伴左右，我们并不亏欠魔鬼，“9?11”事件也没有把我们变成更好的人。它只是一次机会，我们不过借此发现了自己的本色。纽约市市长朱利安尼在朋友的葬礼中说得好：“也许这一切的目的就是要考验一下，看看今日的美国是否仍像当年为争取独立而战时那样坚强，是否仍像当年为结束奴隶制而团结奋战时那样坚强，是否仍像当年我们的父辈为消灭纳粹而战时那样坚强．”他认为，恐怖主义者就指望我们会胆怯。但自“9?11”事件以来，他们想必对我们已有所了解。当然我们对自己也有了不少认识。
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