宪法：“为我们自己和我们的后代”
宪法：“为我们自己和我们的子孙后代”
约翰·C·博格尔主席在国家宪法中心落成典礼上的致辞
宾夕法尼亚州费城
2003 年 7 月 4 日
当我们这些受到无限恩泽的美利坚合众国公民，努力去捍卫宪法那激动人心的序言中所阐述的福祉时，我们的开国元勋提醒我们，我们这样做是“为我们自己和我们的子孙后代”——不仅是为了我们的孩子和孙辈，而且字面意义上是为了“所有后来的一代代人”。
The Constitution: “For Ourselves and Our Posterity” Remarks by John C. Bogle Chairman, National Constitution Center At the Dedication of the Center Philadelphia, PA July 4, 2003 As we infinitely-blessed citizens of the United States of America strive to secure the blessings set forth in the Constitution’s stirring preamble, our Founding Fathers remind us that we do so “for ourselves and our posterity”—not only for our children and our grandchildren, but literally for “all succeeding generations.”
对于这位中心董事会里的“老家伙”兼两位创始成员之一来说，还有什么主题能比“家庭”更适合呢？更何况，在这个美好的日子里，他的儿孙们正坐在台下。
What theme could possibly be more appropriate for “the old man” of the Center’s Board of Trustees and one of its two founding members, with his children and grandchildren in the audience on this splendid day?
首先，请允许我表达我的期望与祈祷：愿这座辉煌的中心能帮助恢复宪法在我们社会中的核心地位。我们常常可悲地未能教育公民——无论老少——让他们了解宪法为我们确立的权利以及它要求我们承担的责任。我们忘记了宪法带来的福祉，而这恰恰需要我们不断被提醒。这正是这个伟大而激动人心的场所的意义所在。
So, first, let me offer my hopes and prayers that this magnificent Center will help restore our Constitution to its central role in our society. Too often, we have abjectly failed to educate our citizens—old and young alike—in the rights the Constitution establishes for us and the responsibilities it demands of us. We forget its blessings, and we need to be reminded of them. That is what this great and exciting place is all about.
216 年前，当我们的开国先贤们就在今晨各位就座之处仅几百步之遥的地方制定宪法时，他们馈赠给了我们一份无价之宝。然而，早在先贤们完成那项辉煌事业前的几个世纪，圣路加就提醒过我们：“多给谁，就向谁多取。”既然我们从这些非凡人物那里得到了如此之多的恩赐，我们又怎能不热忱地接受这一要求——为我们的子孙后代同样确保这些恩赐？
When our founders crafted the Constitution 216 years ago, only a few hundred paces away from where you sit this morning, they gave us something priceless. Yet centuries before our founders did their brilliant work, St. Luke reminded us: “To those to whom much is given, of them much is required.” Having been given so many blessings from these remarkable men, how could we not enthusiastically accept the requirement that we insure those same blessings for our posterity?
我们宪法的精妙之处在于：开国先贤把修整权交给了我们——我们人民，而且只有我们人民——任何人为制定的宪章都难免会有缺陷，修正这些缺陷的责任便落在我们肩上。每当缺陷显现，我们人民就尽力修补，至今已通过了二十七条修正案。
One of the beauties of our Constitution is that our founders entrusted us—we the people, and only we the people—with the responsibility to repair the imperfections that any man-made charter would inevitably develop. And as imperfections came to light, we the people did our best to fix them, so far with twenty-seven amendments.
今天，我们的宪法面临新的挑战：是否需要通过一项修正案，在个人权利与反恐之间取得恰当平衡？在保护隐私与互联网如今几乎可无限制获取人们生活信息之间取得恰当平衡？在不允许制造克隆人的前提下，通过基因研究拯救生命之间取得恰当平衡？我们不能回避这些挑战，我们也不会回避。
Today our Constitution faces new challenges. Will an amendment be required to strike a proper balance between individual rights and defense against terrorism? A proper balance between our privacy and the almost unlimited information on our lives now afforded by the internet? A proper balance between genetic research to save lives without allowing the creation of human clones? We cannot shrink from these challenges, and we shall not.
我们人类所肩负的永恒使命，可以用丁尼生叙事诗《尤利西斯》的末句来概括。
Our task, the eternal task of the human condition, can be summed up by the final line of Tennyson’s epic poem Ulysses.
“奋斗、求索、发现、永不屈服。”
“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
因此，我们必须努力维护我们的宪法，修正其不完善之处，寻找成为更好公民的新途径，绝不向当下的激情屈服。如果我们做到这些，并且做得卓越，我们就不仅服务于开国先贤的理想，也不仅仅服务于我们自己，更服务于我们的后代——这正是宪法对我们的要求。
And so we must strive to honor our Constitution, seek to fix its imperfections, find new ways to be better citizens, and never yield to the passions of the day. If we do these things, and do them with excellence, we will serve not only the ideals of our Founding Fathers, and not merely ourselves, but our posterity, just as our Constitution demands.