美國國務(wù)卿約翰·克里在弗吉尼亞大學(xué)英語演講稿

1、美國國務(wù)卿約翰·克里在弗吉尼亞大學(xué)英語演講稿thank you. thank you very, verymuch. thank you. good morning. thank you for anextraordinarily warm welcome,charlottesville. i am really honored to be here.senator tim kaine, thank youvery, very much for your generous words of introduction.tim, as he mentioned,has only been

2、 on the foreign relations committee, i guess now for atotal of afew weeks, but i can, based on his testimony a moment ago, positively commendhimon his voting record. (laughter and applause.) hes really hes foundhimself new jobsecurity too, because here in virginia you have a single-termgovernor for

3、four years, so he hastraded one single four-year term for asix-year term with potential extension. (laughter.) sogiven the fact that itraded the several extensions for a four-year term and then im finished,maybehe knows something and i ought to be listening to him. (laughter.) i could learna thingor

4、 two from him.we didnt overlap for long, but iwant to tell everybody here that we know each other prettywell from service asa lieutenant governor and when he was governor of the state. i waslieutenantgovernor of my state, so we have that in common before being senators.ill tell you a quick story. an

5、di dont know what you do in virginia as lieutenant governor,but inmassachusetts, once upon a time calvin coolidge was lieutenant governor. and hewas ata dinner party, and his dinner partner turned to him and said, “what doyou do?” and he said, “well, im calvin coolidge. im lieutenant governor ofmass

6、achusetts.” and she said, “oh wow,that must be really interesting. tell meall about the job.” and he said, “i just did.” (laughter.)so i trust, becausethey embraced you and me, we made something more out of it.but i have huge admiration forthe path that tim kaine has followed. i know his sense ofwha

7、t america means tothe world was forged in the early days that congressman hurt referredto abouthis missionary work, the catholic missionary working in honduras, just helpingotherpeople to live healthier lives. and i know, because two weeks after theelection, tim called meand he asked if he could ser

8、ve on the foreign relationscommittee. well, in the senate, i willtell you, you dont always get thosecalls. people who step forward and volunteer in that way ona committee thatdoesnt have the opportunity to bring bacon back home and perhaps deliverit aseasy a reelection. so i know that in tim kaine,

9、virginia has a senator whosgoing to makehis mark on that committee, and hes going to make the mark foryour commonwealth and ourcountry, and were grateful for your service, tim.thank you very, very much. (applause.)i also am particularly gratefulfor congressman robert hurt being here today. i have le

10、ftpartisan politics andits wonderful for me to be able to welcome people in the complete spiritofnonpartisanship, not just bipartisan, but nonpartisanship. and im particularlygrateful to himfor his service in the state legislature, in both houses, nowin the house, and im confidentfrom the words you

11、expressed and theconversation we had, youre going to make yourcontribution too. and i thankyou for your presence here today. (applause.)president sullivan, thank you somuch for welcoming me here to this historic, remarkablecampus. i just feastedon the view as i walked across the lawn with president

12、sullivan, and ihave tosay you all are very lucky to go to school here. (laughter.) it is an honor tojoin you hereon grounds (laughter and applause) this very, very beautifulmonument to the potential ofthe human mind. and i have to tell you, to standhere beneath the gaze of the sages of athens,those

13、thinkers who gave us theidea of democracy, which we obviously still continue to perfect,not only inour own nation but around the world, we are grateful for that.i will tell you also, i was herea long time ago as an undergraduate. i played lacrosse downon that field overthere against you guys, and my

14、 first act of diplomacy is literally to forgetwhowon. i have no idea. i dont know. (laughter.)i want to thank the folks inuniform. i want to thank the rotc and all those of you who haveserved and willcontinue to serve in some way for our nation. there is no greater declarationofcitizenship than that

15、, and i happen to believe the word “citizen” is one ofthe most important inthe american lexicon.some might ask why im standinghere at the university of virginia, why am i starting here?a secretary ofstate making his first speech in the united states? you might ask, “doesntdiplomacy happen over there

16、, overseas, far beyond the boundaries of ourownbackyards?”so why is it that i am at thefoot of the blue ridge instead of on the shores of the blacksea? why am i inold cabell hall and not kabul, afghanistan? (laughter.)the reason is very simple. i camehere purposefully to underscore that in todays gl

17、obalworld, there is nolonger anything foreign about foreign policy. more than ever before,thedecisions that we make from the safety of our shores dont just ripple outward;they alsocreate a current right here in america. how we conduct our foreignpolicy matters more thanever before to our everyday li

18、ves, to theopportunities of all those students i met standingoutside, whatever year theyare here, thinking about the future. its important not just in termsof thethreats that we face, but the products that we buy, the goods that we sell, andtheopportunity that we provide for economic growth and vita

19、lity. its not justabout whether wellbe compelled to send our troops to another battle, butwhether well be able to send ourgraduates into a thriving workforce. thatswhy im here today.im here because our lives asamericans are more intertwined than ever before with the livesof people inparts of the wor

20、ld that we may have never visited. in the global challengesofdiplomacy, development, economic security, environmental security, you willfeel our successor failure just as strongly as those people in those othercountries that youll never meet. for allthat we have gained in the 21stcentury, we have lo

21、st the luxury of just looking inward.instead, we look outand we see a new field of competitors. i think it gives us much reason tohope.but it also gives us many more rivals determined to create jobs andopportunities fortheir own people, a voracious marketplace that sometimesforgets morality and valu

22、es.i know that some of you and manyacross the country wish that globalization would just goaway, or you wistfullyremember easier times. but, my friends, no politician, no matter howpowerful,can put this genie back in the bottle. so our challenge is to tame the worstimpulsesof globalization even as w

23、e harness its ability to spread informationand possibility, to offereven the most remote place on earth the same choicesthat have made us strong and free.so before i leave this weekend tolisten to our allies and partners next week throughouteurope and the middleeast, and in the coming months across

24、asia, africa, and the americas, iwantedto first talk with you about the challenge that we face here at home, becauseourengagement with the rest of the world begins by making some important choicestogether, andparticularly about our nations budget. our sense of sharedresponsibility, that we care abou

25、tsomething bigger than ourselves, isabsolutely central to the spirit of this school. its also centralto thespirit of our nation.as you well know, and dr.sullivan reminded you a moment ago, our first secretary of statefounded thisgreat university. students of his day, when he did, could basically onl

26、y studylaw ormedicine or religion. that was about it. but thomas jefferson had avision, and he believed thatthe american people needed a public place to learna diversity of disciplines studies of scienceand space, of flora, fauna, andphilosophy. he built this university in the image of what he calle

27、d“theillimitable freedom of the human mind.”today, those of you who studyhere and who teach here, along with the taxpayers,contributors, and parentswho believe in your potential, you are all investing in mr. jeffersonsvision.now think for a moment about what that means. why do you spend the many day

28、sandthe borrowed dollars it takes to earn an education here, or anywhere? whydid jefferson wantthis institution to remain public and accessible, not justto virginians but as a destinationfrom everywhere? i know that he wasnt thinkingjust about your getting a degree and a job. itwas about something m

29、ore.jefferson believed we couldnt be a strong country without investingin thekind of education that empowers us to be good citizens. thats why foundingthisuniversity is among the few accomplishments that jefferson listed on hisepitaph that he wrotefor himself. to him, this place and its goal was a b

30、iggerpart of his legacy than serving assecretary of state or even as president,neither of which made the cut.just as jefferson understood thatwe need to invest in education in order to produce goodcitizens, i joinpresident obama today in asserting with urgency that our citizenry deservesastrong fore

31、ign policy to protect our interests in the world. a wise investmentin foreign policycan yield for a nation the same return that education doesfor a student. and no investmentthat we make that is as small as thisinvestment puts forward such a sizeable benefit forourselves and for ourfellow citizens o

32、f the world. thats why i wanted to have thisconversationwith you today, which i hope is a conversation that extends well beyondtheborders of charlottesville, well beyond this university, to all americans.when i talk about a smallinvestment in foreign policy in the united states, i mean it. notso lon

33、g ago,someone polled the american people and asked, “how big is our internationalaffairsbudget?” most pegged it at 25 percent of our national budget, and theythought it ought to bepared way back to ten percent of our national budget.let me tell you, would that that weretrue. id take ten percent in a

34、heartbeat, folks (laughter) because ten percent is exactly tentimesgreater than what we do invest in our efforts to protect america around theworld.in fact, our whole foreign policybudget is just over one percent of our national budget.think about it a littlebit. over one percent, a little bit more,

35、 funds all of our civilian andforeignaffairs efforts every embassy, every program that saves a child from dirtydrinkingwater, or from aids, or reaches out to build a village, and bringamericas values, every person.were not talking about pennies on the dollar;were talking about one penny plus a bit,

36、on asingle dollar.so where you think this ideacomes from, that we spend 25 percent of our budget? well, illtell you. itspretty simple. as a recovering politician (laughter) i can tell you thatnothinggets a crowd clapping faster in a lot of places than saying, “im goingto washington to get themto sto

37、p spending all that money over there.” andsometimes they get a lot more specific.if youre looking for an applauseline, thats about as guaranteed an applause line as youcan get. but guesswhat? it does nothing to guarantee our security. it doesnt guaranteeastronger country. it doesnt guarantee a sound

38、er economy or a more stable jobmarket. itdoesnt guarantee that the best interests of our nation are beingserved. it doesnt guaranteethat another young american man or woman wont goand lose their life because we werentwilling to make the right investmentshere in the first place.we need to say no to t

39、he politicsof the lowest common denominator and of simplisticslogans, and start makingreal choices that protect the interests of our country. thatsimperative.(applause.)unfrtunately, the statedepartment doesnt have our own grover norquist pushing a pledgeto protect it.we dont have millions of aarp s

40、eniors who send in their dues and rally toprotectamericas investments overseas. the kids whose lives were helping savefrom aids, the womenwere helping to free from the horrors of sex trafficking,the students who, for the first time, canchoose to walk into a school insteadof into a short life of terr

41、orism their strongest lobbyists arethe rare,committed americans who stand up for them and for the resources that we needtohelp them. and i hope that includes all of you here and many listening.you understand why. every timethat a tough fiscal choice looms, the easiest place topoint fingers foreignai

42、d. as ronald reagan said, foreign aid suffers from a lack ofdomesticconstituency, and thats part of the reason that everyone thinks it costs a lotmore thanit really does. so we need to change that. i reject the excuse thatamericans just arentinterested in whats happening outside of their immediatefi

43、eld of vision. i dont believe thatabout any one of you sitting here, and idont believe that about americans.in fact, the real domesticconstituency for what we do, if people can see the dots connectedandunderstand what were doing in its full measure, is really large. its the 314millionamericans whose

44、 lives are better every day because of what we do, andwho, deep down, whenthey have time to stop and think about it, know that ourinvestment abroad actually makesthem and our nation safer.now, my friends, in this age,when a shrinking world clashes with calls for shrinking budgets and were notalone i

45、ts our job to connect those dots, to connect them for theamericanpeople between what we do over there and the size of the difference that itmakes overhere at home, why the price of abandoning our global efforts wouldbe exorbitant, and whythe vacuum we would leave by retreating within ourselveswill q

46、uickly be filled by those whoseinterests differ dramatically from ours.we learned that lesson in thedeserts of mali recently, in the mountains of afghanistan in2019, and in thetribal areas of pakistan even today. just think: todays first-years here atuvawere starting the second grade when a small ca

47、bal of terrorists halfwayaround the worldshattered our sense of security and our stability, ourskylines. so i know that you certainlyhave always understood that bad thingshappening over there threaten us right here.knowing that, the question isthis: how do we, together, make clear that the opposite

48、is justas true; thatif we do the right things, the good things, the smart things over there, itwillstrengthen us here at home?let me tell you my answer: ibelieve we do this in two ways. first, its about telling the storyof how westand up for american jobs and businesses pretty practical, prettystrai

49、ghtforward,and pretty real on a day-to-day basis. and second, its abouthow we stand up for our americanvalues, something that has alwaysdistinguished america.i agree with president obama thatthere is nothing in this current budget fight thatrequires us to make baddecisions, that forces us to retrenc

50、h or to retreat. this is a time tocontinueto engage for the sake of the safety and the economic health of our country.this is notoptional. it is a necessity. the american people understand this, ibelieve. our businessesunderstand this. its simple. the more they sellabroad, the more theyre going to h

51、ire here athome. and since 95 percent ofthe worlds customers live outside of our country, we canthamstring our ownability to compete in those increasingly growing markets.virginia understands this as wellas any state in the union. senator kaine, i know, when agovernor, took thosetrips to try to make

52、 this happen. international trade supports more thanamillion jobs right here in virginia more than one in five jobs in virginia,which actually todayis the story of america.you have a company up near dullescalled orbital sciences corporation. with the help of thepersistent advocatesof our embassy in

53、bangkok, it beat out french and russian competitors tobuildthailands newest broadcast satellite. virginias orbital is now teaming upwith a californiacompany called space exploration technologies that makessatellite equipment. the deal thatour embassy helped secure, valued at $160million, goes right

54、back into american communitiesfrom coast to coast. thatsthe difference that our embassies abroad actually can make back hereat home.and these success stories happenin partnership with countries all over the world because ofthe resources thatweve deployed to bring business and jobs back to america. t

55、heseinvestments,my friends, are paying for themselves. we create more than 5,000 jobs foreverybillion dollars of goods and services that we export. so the last thing that weshould do issurrender this kind of leverage.these successes are happening incanada, where state department officers there got a

56、 localautomotive firm toinvest tens of millions of dollars in michigan, where the americanautoindustry is now making a remarkable comeback.in indonesia where, thanks toembassy jakarta, that nations largest privately run airlinejust placed anorder for commercial aircraft, the largest order boeing has

57、 ever been askedtofill. meanwhile, the indonesian state railroad is buying its locomotives fromgeneral electric.in south africa, where more than600 u.s. companies are doing business, and where opic,the overseas privateinvestment corporation, and the export-import bank, and the tradeanddevelopment ag

58、ency just opened an office to help close more investment dealsbetweenamerican companies and africas booming energy and transportationsectors, its also a two-waystreet. a major south african energy company isplanning to build a multibillion-dollar plant inlouisiana that will put moreamericans to work

59、.let me tell you, this ishappening, in cameroon and bosnia and other surprising places. inthe shadowsof world war ii, if you told someone that japan and germany would today beourfourth- and fifth-largest trading partners, someone would have thought you werecrazy.before nixons bold opening with china, no one could have imagined thattoday it would be oursecond-largest trading partner, but thats exactly whatshappened.ele