又一个角度

很有意思，他当政的8年里，我对他大概一分钟的关注都没有。他的那8年可圈可点的很多，众说纷纭。但令我不解的是，怎么会有那么多人对他恨之入骨。。比起小布什，克林顿，他的政策基本上中规中矩。好像也没有什么丑闻，笑话。

没想到的是在他刚刚离开的这几年里，我就开始关注了。

Becoming是一个角度，这本书是另一个角度。嗯，都是能写，会写的人，书自然好看。

“Nations arise telling a story that binds people together in sacrifice and cooperation, allowing for remarkable feats. But those same stories have so often been used to oppress and dehumanize those who are different. The wars of the modern age teach us this truth. Hiroshima teaches this truth. Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us. The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well.”
― Ben Rhodes, The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House

今天听到书中的这段话时，就想着要找出来再看看。。还有这段：

“I came to realize that this was about more than not offering up what some of his opponents craved—the picture of the angry black man, or the lectures on race that fuel a sense of grievance among white voters. Obama also didn’t want to offer up gauzy words to make well-meaning white people feel better. The fact that he was a black president wasn’t going to bring life back to an unarmed black kid who was shot, or alter structural inequities in housing, education, and incarceration in our states and cities. It wasn’t going to change the investment of powerful interests in a system that sought to deny voting rights, or to cast people on food stamps working minimum wage jobs as “takers,” incapable of making it on their own. The “last person who ever thought that Barack Obama’s election was going to bring racial reconciliation and some “end of race” in America was Barack Obama. That was a white person’s concept imposed upon his campaign. I know because I was once one of them, taking delight in writing words about American progress, concluding in the applause line “And that is why I can stand before you as president of the United States.” But he couldn’t offer up absolution for America’s racial sins, or transform American society in four or eight years.”
― Ben Rhodes, The World As It Is: Inside the Obama White House

记得The Guest Book 里Reg的那些话么？60多年了。。。。

其实，书里讲到的种族问题篇幅不大。。更多的是当时的国际问题，有些我有大概的印象，有些几乎都不记得了。不过，听起来都很有意思。

噢，有个印象挺深，他们那些人都很年轻！

 

 

[糯米粥]

回复 '桃子苹果' 的评论 : 听了你的介绍后觉得更有意思了。一定试试

[桃子苹果]

回复 '糯米粥' 的评论 : 听完了这本书。比我想象的要好得多。他是国际事务方面的助理，所以书中涉及到很多这方面的事情，很有意思。。。他是speech writer，自然会写。不过，我觉得文字的把握还在其次，更喜欢字里行间流露出的心态，角度和立场。。据他自己说，当年，他是媒体注意的对象之一，可惜当年我对此人一无所知，闻所未闻，也就没办法把读书后对他的印象和当时从媒体眼中看到的他相比较。

[糯米粥]

回复 '桃子苹果' 的评论 : 明白了，有道理。以后找机会试试这本书

[桃子苹果]

回复 '糯米粥' 的评论 : "some of his opponents" are not those people that voted for him. They could be very different... If you read the book, you may see his point of view..

[糯米粥]

"Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us" -- 觉得这句很有insights。现在的青少年沉迷于手机等devices， 真是大问题

"this was about more than not offering up what some of his opponents craved—the picture of the angry black man" -- 这句我觉得偏于“诛心论”。 选民们选了他上台 （我也是投他的票），选的是领袖， 怎么会期望看到angry black man？