VOA双语新闻 Marian Wright Edelman Keeps a Watchful Eye

The daughter of a poor, black Baptist preacher, Marian Wright Edelman grew up in the racially segregated 1 South. But she worked her way through college and law school and went to Washington, D.C., as counsel to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, Poor People's campaign. It was there, in 1973, that she founded the advocacy group called the Children's Defense 3 Fund.

玛丽安.赖特.埃德尔曼是一位贫穷的黑人浸信会传教士的女儿，她在实施种族隔离政策的美国南方长大。她靠打工念完了大学和法学院，之后来到首都华盛顿，成为马丁.路德.金领导的“穷人进军运动”的法律顾问。玛丽安.赖特.埃德尔曼1973年在华盛顿创建了“儿童保护基金”这个倡议互助组织。

So unrelenting is Marian Wright Edelman's campaign on behalf of poor, sick, neglected, and abused children that she has been called America's mother. Not satisfied to speak on children's behalf before church and community groups, Edelman has walked the halls of Congress and state legislatures, lobbying for funds to provide better medical care, early schooling 4, and protection from gun violence for poor children.

由埃德尔曼组织开创、代表贫穷、患病、被人忽视以及受虐待儿童的这场运动开展得如此坚定、不屈不挠，以致于她被称为“美国之母”。埃德尔曼并不满足于仅仅在教会和社区团体为孩子们大声疾呼，她来到国会的大厅，在立法机构游说，为贫穷的孩子们能够获得更好的医疗条件、更早地接受教育、免受枪支暴力的袭击争取资金支持。

Now 66, Edelman carries two searing images of her rural South Carolina hometown. One was of an ambulance driver who rushed to the scene of a terrible highway accident, but drove off when he discovered that the injured were black migrant workers.

埃德尔曼今年已经66岁，她一直带着两幅令人看后心情难以平静的图片。这有关她南卡罗来纳州乡村家园的图画。一张描绘的是一名赶往发生严重公路交通事故现场的救护车司机，但是当这名司机发现受伤的人是黑人季节农工的时候，他竟然扬长而去。

The other image is of a painting, hanging in the vestibule of her father's church. It depicted 5, she recalls, "a very prominent white family, sitting at a table, with lots of food weighing down the table, but with hordes 6 of skinny, emaciated 7 people around that table. And the rich white people say, 'Shall we say grace?'"

另外一幅是悬挂在他父亲所在教会前厅的一张绘画，描绘的是，一个非常显赫的白人家庭坐在餐桌旁，餐桌上摆满了美味佳肴，但是有很多瘦骨嶙峋的人围着那张餐桌。富有的白人说，“我们应当做感恩祷告吗？”

Marian Wright Edelman's own home was filled with love and lots of children, including four siblings 8 and -- off and on -- 12 foster sisters and brothers.

埃德尔曼自己的家里洋溢着真爱。她家有很多孩子，包括4名同胞弟妹，还断断续续收养了12名弟妹。

"My daddy had holes in his shoes," she says. "But he was able to convey to me that I, a young black girl, could be and do anything, that race and gender 9 are shadows, and that character, self-discipline, determination, attitude and service are the substance of life."

埃德尔曼说：“我的爸爸虽然穿着有洞的鞋子，但是他却可以让我懂得一点，我这样一个年纪轻轻的黑人女孩能够成就任何事业。种族和性别是人生的阴影，但是个人的品质、自我修养、决心态度和服务他人的精神却是我人生的财富。”

That service began in the even deeper and more segregated South, in Mississippi, where Marian Wright became the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar. After her work with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Poor People's March brought her to Washington, she turned her attention to children -- in the hope that parents' universal love of their children could bridge the gaps between America's races and classes.

这种服务他人的精神在当时种族隔离更加猖獗严重的南方密西西比州开始发扬。埃德尔曼成为第一位被允许加入密西西比州律师协会的黑人妇女。在她与马丁.路德.金开始共事之后，“穷人进军运动”把她带到了首都华盛顿。她开始把注意力转向儿童，希望父母对孩子与生俱来的爱能够跨越种族和阶层之间的鸿沟。

"I didn't set out to start a children's defense fund," Ms. Edelman says. "It never occurred to me that I'd go to law school. But I got mad one day when I saw that poor people didn't have lawyers during the sit-in movement, which I was participating in. And I wondered why I was thinking about going off to study 19th-century Russian literature. What would that do for anybody? So I just followed the need."

埃德尔曼说：“我当初并没有打算创建儿童保护基金，我从来也没有想到我会去法学院深造。但是有一天，当我看到在我所参加的静坐抗议运动中，那些穷人没有钱请律师的时候，我非常气愤。我想，我为什么要想着去学什么19世纪的俄罗斯文学呢？学那个专业能给谁带来益处呢？所以我就根据需要选择了专业。”

Ms. Edelman, who is married and the mother of three sons, is often asked what is wrong with today's seemingly aimless and wayward children. Adults are what's the matter, she replies. "Parents letting children raise themselves or be raised by television. Children being shaped by peers and gangs, instead of by parents and grandparents and kin 2. Children roaming the streets because there's nobody at home or paying enough attention. Adults telling children to be honest while lying and cheating. Adults telling children not to be violent, while marketing 10 a culture that glorifies 11 violence. What's wrong with our children? We're what's wrong with our children."

经常有人问结婚成家已经是三个儿子母亲的埃德尔曼，今天这些看上去胸无志向、任性娇惯的孩子们到底怎么了。她回答说，成年人是问题的原因所在。埃德尔曼说：“父母让孩子们放任自流或者成天看电视度日。孩子的成长定型受到周围其他同龄夥伴而不是父母、祖父母以及亲属的影响。孩子们在街头闲逛，因为家里没有人，或者没有人对他们表示出足够的关心。大人告诉孩子们要诚实，但是自己却撒谎欺骗。大人告诉孩子们不要从事暴力活动，但是却在营造一种崇尚暴力的文化。我们的孩子们怎么了？我们就是我们的孩子为什么变成这样的原因。”

Taking questions recently after a speech at a downtown church in Washington, D.C., Marian Wright Edelman was confronted by a conservative parishioner. He asked her why the Children's Defense Fund puts so much emphasis on social programs, when it should be focusing on irresponsible parents who bear children out of wedlock 12 and then neglect them.

最近，埃德尔曼在华盛顿市中心一座教堂发表演讲之后接受了别人的提问。一位观点保守的教区居民提问说，儿童保护基金应该特别关注只知道结婚生子、生下孩子却置之不理的那些不负责任的父母，可为什么却把如此多的精力投入社会项目？

"You can't teach what you don't know," she responded. "We do a lot to try to talk to young people in schools and everywhere we go about not having children until you're ready to support them for a lifetime. But we also recognize that in order to do that, you've got to put hope in place. You've got to put opportunity in place. It's one thing to judge people. It's another thing to help them."

埃德尔曼回答说：“你不能教别人你不知道的东西。我们进行了大量努力，告诉学校以及我们所到的所有地方的年轻人，除非你准备好用一生的时间来抚养支持孩子，否则，你们不要生孩子。但是我们同时也意识到，为了那样做，你得为他们带来希望，你得带给他们机会。论断、评价别人是一回事，你还要帮助他们。”

Marian Wright Edelman says she speaks for children whose nightmares come from the daytime, who aren't spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry in our rich land and cry themselves to sleep.

埃德尔曼表示，她在为这样的孩子们说话。她说：“那些孩子们的恶梦来自白天，他们得不到任何人的关爱，在我们这片富裕的国土上，他们饿着肚子上床睡觉，伴随着哭泣进入梦乡。”

Marian Wright Edelman's home county in South Carolina is no longer officially segregated by race. But she says economic hopelessness there keeps most poor, black people down. The largest employers in Marlboro County are a state prison and a federal prison. Our children, Ms. Edelman adds with a deep sigh, are their feeder system.

从法定意义上讲，埃德尔曼在南卡罗来纳州的故乡小城不再有种族隔离。不过她说，那里经济方面的无望氛围让绝大多数贫穷的黑人心灰意冷。她的故乡马尔波罗县最大的雇主是一座州监狱以及一座联邦监狱。埃德尔曼长叹一声说道：“我们的孩子成了那里源源不断的顾客。”