波士顿市政厅（2020）

有次 我有机会和家里通话
And I had the opportunity to call home.
我给我母亲打电♥话♥
I called my mother
我说的第一件事是
and the first thing I said to her was
妈 我想为我高中给你带来的麻烦向你道歉
Ma, I want to just apologize to you for all the problems I caused you when I was in high school.
她问 你为什么要说这些
She said why are you talking to me like this?
我说 因为你可能再也见不到我了
I said because you'll probably never see me again.
她说你什么意思 我说我们都快死了
She said what do you mean? I said everybody in my unit's dying.
我们在海军陆战队最北边的前哨 我们被包围了
We're the most northern outpost that the Marines have. We're surrounded.
他们每天轰炸我们 有时不给我们送水
They're bombarding us every day. Sometimes they don't even bring us water.
我们得喝泥浆 吃野草
We have to drink mud and eat grass.
我妈说 你不会死的
And my mother said, you're not going to die.
我说 妈 我是认真的
I said Ma, I'm trying to tell you something.
她说 我每天都和上帝说话
She said, I talk to God every day.
你是个特别的孩子 会平安回来的
And you're special. You're coming back.
我说 妈 每个母亲都认为自己的孩子很特别
I said Ma, everybody's mother thinks they're special.
我正在把这些特别的人放进殓尸袋
I'm putting pieces of special people in bags.
你好好听我说
Listen to what I'm saying.
不要相信在《环球报》或者6点新闻上看到的事
Don't believe what you read in the Globe or what you see on the 6:00 news.
我们要输了 很多人牺牲了
We're losing the war. We're being sacrificed.
你可能再也见不到我了
You're probably not going to see me again
她不停地说 你会回来的
and she kept saying, you're coming back.
她试着讲了个笑话 她说 你必须回来
She tried to tell a joke. She said besides, you got to come back.
我问她 什么意思
I said what do you mean?
她说 你不回来 谁付电♥话♥费
She said, if you don't come back who's going to pay this telephone bill?
每次我看见或听说
And everytime I see or hear
关于在越南牺牲的老兵的事
anything about Veterans who lost their lives in Vietnam,
每次我把车停在街角
I pull up on the corner
看到那些拿着硬纸板和杯子的人
and I see guys with the cardboard placards and their cups,
我意识到 自己是多么幸运
I realize how blessed I am.
经历了那些残酷之后
Having gone through all that
我所做的一切 都是为了他们
everything that I do I do it for them.
为了那些没能回来的人
I do it for the guys that didn't make it back.
为了那些失去手或者脚
I do it for the guys who lost their arms and legs
甚至是失去心智的人
and guys who even lost their minds.
我希望有一天 随着技术的发展
I long for the day with all this technology,
当电脑可以放在口袋里
like we walk around with computers in our pockets,
我希望有一天
I long for the day
我们不再需要战争 就能解决矛盾
when we can evolve to a point where we can resolve conflicts
不用把我们的儿女送去自相残杀
without sending our sons and daughters to kill each other.
永远不要忘记 战争的代价
Let us not forget the total cost of war.
当时第一次世界大战是人类历史上
World War I was among the deadliest conflicts in human history
截止当时 最致命的冲突
up to that time at least.
一战的军民伤亡数
The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I
大约有4000万人
was around 40 million people.
在这场战争中丧生的
40 million people
4000万人中
of which 9.7million military personnel
有大约970万的军人
and approximately 10 million civilians lost their lives
以及大约1000万平民
as a direct result of this conflict.
大约有2300万军人受伤
About 23 million military personnel were also wounded.
在与欧洲战场隔绝的美国战场
In the United States which was isolated from the combat conflict in Europe,
有32.1万的军人伤亡 大约占一战军人伤亡总数的3%
321,000 military casualties was approximately 3 % of the total military casualties of the Great War.
换个角度来看 为什么这个日期如此重要
To put things in perspective, and why this date is so important,
二次世界大战 以及相关的战争
90 million casualties of
共有伤亡人数9000万
World War II and later conflicts
所以 每年都要有一个日子
further signified having a day each year
让我们铭记
to honor and remember
所有的退伍军人
all Veterans and their sacrifice
为了保护我们的自♥由♥ 和他们的追求做出的牺牲
to protect our freedoms and their way of life.
感谢你们对国家的奉献
Thank you for your service to our country.
感谢你们对国家的牺牲
Thank you for your sacrifice to our country.
另外 感谢你们所爱的人
To your loved ones, thank you to your loved ones as well.
因为通常 我们不会意识到
Because oftentimes we don't realize that
亲人不在身边 对家庭造成的影响
families are affected by not having their loved ones here.
有获得金星勋章的家庭吗
Any gold star families here?
我们为你祈祷 感谢你们
We pray for you and thank you as well.
我有个很好的叔叔 参加过一战
I have a great uncle that fought in World War I.
我的家人 我父亲都很少提到他
My family and my father didn't talk about him much.
他叫帕特里克 他离开爱尔兰到美国
His name was Patrick and he left Ireland and came to America
在南波士顿应征入伍
and came to South Boston and he enlisted in the Army.
他去了法国 再也没有回家
He went over to France and never came home.
我刚当选市长后 参加了一个活动
I was at an event right after I got elected Mayor,
我和一战的军人谈论
and I was talking to some World War I guys about
如何让一战军人的记忆永存
about keeping the memory alive of World War I service members.
他们寄来了他写的稿子 名片
And they sent me his draft, his card.
他参军的那天
The day he signed up.
他们给我寄了一封
And they sent me the letter that
当他在前线阵亡 弥留之际
he sent to his brother Jimmy when he died,
给哥哥吉米写的信
when he got killed in action.
我们在家里从来不聊
We never talked about it in the house
也从未真正细想
and never really thought about it much.
我父亲从未提起过这件事
And my father never talked about it.
我在爱尔兰家庭长大
I grew up in an Irish home,
我们不怎么吐露心声 我不是退伍军人
you didn't talk about your things and I'm not a Veteran.
但有时 说出你的心声是很重要的
But I know the importance of telling what's on your heart sometimes.
我正在康复中
I'm in recovery.
所以我知道 康复是需要帮助的
So my connection to getting help is in recovery.
我在多切斯特长大
I grew up in Dorchester,
后来在建筑工地工作
I went to work construction and
我们喝酒的时候
you didn't tell your feelings back then
是不会聊自己感受的
when you're drinking and things like that.
后来 我的酒瘾无法控制
My drinking got out of control
以至于最后去了戒瘾诊所
so much that I ended up in detox.
那是我最不想去的地方
It was the last place that I wanted to be.
但是当我在里面时
But when I was in there...
我不是去戒酒的
I didn't go there to stop drinking.
我去那里 只是为了喘口气
I went there to get the heat off me.
我在那里的第一个晚上 有个座谈会
But while I was in there the first night a meeting came in,
匿名戒酒座谈会
you know, an AA meeting came in and
我对他们聊的事很感兴趣
they talked and whatever it was I was interested.
他们引起了我的兴趣
It kind of perked my interest
那一周剩下的时间里
and the rest of that week,
我听到 他们聊上瘾
I listened to talk of addiction.
明白了什么是酗酒
And I learned about what alcoholism was.
当我从那里出来的时候 我并没有痊愈
And when you get out of there, you're not cured.
对我来说 关键是之后的调理
The key for me is the aftercare.
现在23年过去了 我仍在戒酒
And 23 years later I'm still working on it.
你会时不时地思考
And you think about every now and then
你可能会把自己置于何种境地
about situations you might have put yourself in.
如果你不管 也不与他人交流
And if you don't deal with it and you don't talk to somebody else about it,
它就会一直藏在你心底
it's going to stay inside of you.
不管你是在战场上
Because whether you're in the battlefield
还是回到家里
or you come home
还是酒吧间里 你都不说
or you're in the barroom and you're not talking about it,
还是在黑屋子里 做针灸
or you're in a dark room where they're putting a needle in your arm,
你都不说心里话
and not talking about it,
别人没有办法帮忙
there's no way of helping.
我不是说酒瘾和战争的感受一样
And I equate, I connect the... not the same way
因为它们完全不同
because it's very different.
为你的国家而战 之后归来
The fighting for your country and coming back
表面上 与酗酒不同
is different on the surface of alcoholism,
但内在的恢复过程 是一样的
but inside it's all the same.
我也曾有的 那种无望的感觉
It's that feeling that hopeless, what I had, helpless,
对这种感觉 手足无措
don't know what to do about it feeling.
每个人都建议 我去寻求帮助
And like I said, everyone had suggested that I go get help.
很多次 我都随口敷衍
Many times I'm like yeah, yeah.
我去了一次匿名戒酒会 就以此为借口
I went to one AA meeting one time and used that as an excuse.
我参加了戒酒会 得到了帮助
Yeah I got help, I went to a meeting.
这个借口 我用了5年
And I used that for about 5 years.
直到我的人生跌入低谷
But it wasn't until I hit my bottom.
当我在低谷时 我没意识到这是低谷
And when I hit my bottom I didn't realize it was my bottom,