Alice Paulって誰だ

このブログでは何度か取り上げているJon Meacham。DNC大会でもスピーチしたのですがどちらかの党に肩入れするのは珍しいことみたいですね。

A Presidential Historian Makes a Rare Appearance in Today’s Political Arena

Jon Meacham’s remarks at this week’s Democratic National Convention sprang from a long friendship with Joe Biden and a desire to add historical context to the present moment.

By Alexandra Alter Aug. 21, 2020

Last month, the historian and biographer Jon Meacham got an unusual request from Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign. The campaign wanted him to speak at the Democratic National Convention — not to endorse Mr. Biden, but to put the stakes of this election in historical context.

“The request was, define the soul of America, and do it quick,” Mr. Meacham said.

Mr. Meacham is not a Democrat. He has voted for candidates of both parties, and his work has focused his attention on studying past presidents rather than endorsing modern-day ones. When he gave his four-minute address Thursday evening from his home in Nashville, he sat in his library with two portraits mounted behind him: one of Representative John Lewis and one of former President George Bush, painted by his son former President George W. Bush.

It was a rare, high-profile appearance in the political arena for a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Mr. Meacham has spent much of his career steeped in the country’s past, studying the lives of presidents such as Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

バイデン大統領候補との仲も長く、指名受諾演説の相談も受けていたとか。

In addition to giving his own remarks, Mr. Meacham was involved in discussions about the themes in Mr. Biden’s acceptance speech.

Mr. Meacham and Mr. Biden got to know each other around 15 years ago, when Mr. Biden told Mr. Meacham how much he enjoyed his book “American Gospel,” about the founding fathers’ views on the role of faith in politics and public life. Mr. Biden had studied it in detail, printing out passages and laminating them, so he could have them on hand when he was campaigning with Barack Obama in 2008.

彼のスピーチでもAmerica is a mix of light and shadowと言ったりしてバイデンの演説を意識しています。

Humankind has long viewed the soul as the vital center, the core, the essence of existence. The soul is what makes us us. In its finest hours, America’s soul has been animated by the proposition that we are all created equal and by the imperative to ensure that we are treated equally. Yet, America is a mix of light and shadow. Seneca falls and Selma and Stonewall dwell in the American soul but so do the impulses that have given us slavery, segregation and systemic discrimination.

Seneca falls、Selma、Stonewallと歴史的な重要な地名を言及しています。それぞれ女性、黒人、LGBTQの権利が念頭にあるのでしょう。オックスフォードの辞書はアメリカの事象は弱くなります。また、アメリカンヘリテージにはStonewallが載っていないのは辞書編集者がLGBTQの動きについていけてないからでしょうか。

（アメリカンヘリテージ）

Seneca Falls

A village of west-central New York on the Seneca River east-southeast of Rochester. The first women's rights convention was held here in 1848.

Selma

A city of south-central Alabama west of Montgomery. A Confederate arsenal during the Civil War, it was the site of a major battle in April 1865. In 1965, a drive to register local voters, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., culminated in a protest march from Selma to Montgomery (March 21-25).

（オックスフォード）

Stonewall

(also the Stonewall riots) fighting between the police and gay people that took place after the New York police raided a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 1969. It was the first time that large numbers of gay people had resisted arrest and the Gay Liberation Front was formed soon afterwards. The riot is considered as the event that marked the beginning of the gay rights movement.

後半部分では地名ではなく人名、Harriet Tubman to Alice Paul, to John Lewisを挙げています。

Often we’d prefer to hear the trumpets rather than face the tragedies but an honest accounting of who we’ve been, can enable us to see who we should be. A country driven by the best parts of our soul, not by the worst. A country informed by reason and candor, not by ego and lies. A country that’s big hearted, not narrow minded. The struggle to be who we ought to be is difficult, demanding and ongoing. Justice can be elusive and change in America has been painful and provisional. The civil war led to segregation. The new deal to right wing reaction, civil rights to white backlash, yet history, which will surely be our judge, can also be our guide. From Harriet Tubman to Alice Paul, to John Lewis from the beaches of Normandy, to the rendering of the iron curtain, our story has soared when we’ve built bridges, not walls. When we’ve lent a hand, not when we’ve pointed fingers. When we’ve hoped not feared.

Alice Paulって誰っとピンとこなかったのですが、女性参政権で大きな役割を果たした女性のようですね。

（アメリカンヘリテージ）

Paul, Alice 1885-1977.

American feminist who founded (1916) the National Woman's Party and wrote (1923) the first equal rights amendment to be considered by the US Congress.

彼のスピーチはお堅いのでどれだけ普通の聴衆に響いたかが気がかりですが、アイデンティティ政治と批判されることもありますがマイノリティへの配慮というのがメインのテーマにならざるを得ない米国の状況を反映したものになっている感じです。