한 동안 미국대통령인 Barack Obama의 연설이 세상에 회자되었었다.
게으른 탓에 한 참이 지난 요즘에 와서야...
2004년 민주당 전당대회 Keynote 연설부터 대통령 취임 연설까지 주요 연설들을 읽어 보았다.
그의 말에는 사람들을 귀 기울이게 하고, 참여를 이끌어 내는 설득력이 있었다.
재선에 성공한 그의 정치가 요즘 어떤지... 나는 잘 모른다.
하지만, 적어도 그는 '강이 없는 곳에서도 다리를 놓아준다'고 떠드는 정치인...
평상시엔 관심도 없다가 선거에 나와서는 국민을 위하는 척, 선심성 공약을 남발하고는 결국은 나몰라라 하거나
말을 바꾸는... 그런 사람은 아닌 것으로 보인다.
그리고 그런 그를 보면... 한 때 우리가 가졌던, 우리에겐 너무 과분했던 노무현 대통령을 떠올리지 않을 수가 없다.
[Keynote Speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention]
사실 이 날의 주인공은 당시 민주당 대통령 후보였던 John Kerry였지만... Obama의 기조연설은 단연 돋보였다.
그는 자신이 아메리칸 드림의 살아 있는 표본임을 그의 가족사를 통하여 보여준다.
I say to you tonight: we have more work to do. More to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that's moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour. More to do for the father I met who was losing his job and choking back tears, wondering how he would pay $4,500 a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits he counted on. More to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn't have the money to go to college.
그의 연설은 고달픈 서민들의 삶을 짧지만 강렬하게 담아낸다.
So instead of offering tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas, he'll offer them to companies creating jobs here at home. John Kerry believes in an America where all Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in Washington have for themselves.
해외로 이전하는 기업에 대한 세금 감면과 같은 잘못된 정책을 지적하고, 모든 국민들에게 보편적인 의료보험을 제공해야 한다는 내용은 결국 그가 다음 번 민주당 대통령 후보가 되면서 그의 주요 공약으로 자리하게 된다.
[New Hampshire Primary Speech - Yes We Can, Janunary 8, 2008]
'Yes We Can Speech' 라는 부제가 붙을 정도로 깊은 인상을 남긴 명연설이다.
이번 선거는 다를 것이라는 기대감으로 정치에 담을 쌓았던 젊은이들이 투표에 동참하고, 자기가 속한 당을 벗어나 공동의 희망에 투표하도록 이끌어 내면서... 이러한 변화가 가능하지 않다고 비아냥 되던 사람들에게 있을 것 같지 않은 일들이 벌어지는 곳이 미국이라며, 희망에 관한한 그릇된 것은 없었다고 말한다.
그리고 그는 이렇게 결론을 이끌어 간다...
우리가 승산없는 싸움에서 고개 숙일 때마다, 우리는 아직 준비되지 않았다거나 시도하지 말았어야 했다거나 또는 우리는 할 수 없다는 말을 들었을 때마다, 미국의 세대들은 민중의 정신을 하나로 결집시키는 단순한 신조로 응답했었다 : Yes, we can.
There is something happening. There's something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit, who've never participated in politics before, turn out in numbers we have never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different.
There's something happening when people vote not just for party that they belong to, but the hopes that they hold in common.
But the reason our campaign has always been different, the reason we began this improbable journey almost a year ago is because it's not just about what I will do as president. It is also about what you, the people who love this country, the citizens of the United States of America, can do to change it.
That's what this election is all about.
That's why tonight belongs to you. It belongs to the organizers, and the volunteers, and the staff who believed in this journey and rallied so many others to join the cause.
We know the battle ahead will be long. But always remember that, no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. And they will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come.
We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.
[Super Tuesday, Chicago, IL, February 5, 2008]
It's different not because of me, but because of you. Because you are tired of being disappointed and tired of being let down. You're tired of hearing promises made and plans proposed in the heat of a campaign only to have nothing change when everyone goes back to Washington. Because the lobbyists just write another check. Or because politicians start worrying about how they'll win the next election instead of why they should. Or because they focus on who's up and who's down instead of who matters.
And while Washington is consumed with the same drama and division and distraction, another family puts up a For Sale sign in the front yard. Another factory shuts its doors. Another soldier waves goodbye as he leaves on another tour of duty in a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged. It goes on and on and on.
But in this election - at this moment - you are standing up all across this country to say, not this time. Not this year. The stakes are too high and the challenges too great to play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result. This time must be different.
오바마는 왜 국민들이 정치에 실망하고, 무관심하게 되는 지를 이해하고 있다.
그리고 이번에는 다를 것이라고 말한다. 이는 그가 정치가로 진출하기 앞 서, 시키고에서 지역사회활동을 했던 이력에서도 이해할 수 있는 부분이다.
I am blessed to be standing in the city where my own extraordinary journey began. A few miles from here, in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant, is where I learned what it takes to make change happen.
I was a young organizer then, intent on fighting joblessness and poverty on the South Side, and I still remember one of the very first meetings I put together. We had worked on it for days, but no one showed up. Our volunteers felt so defeated, they wanted to quit. And to be honest, so did I.
But at that moment, I looked outside and saw some young boys tossing stones at a boarded-up apartment building across the street. They were like boys in so many cities across the country - boys without prospects, without guidance, without hope. And I turned to the volunteers, and I asked them, "Before you quit, I want you to answer one question. What will happen to those boys?" And the volunteers looked out that window, and they decided that night to keep going - to keep organizing, keep fighting for better schools, and better jobs, and better health care. And so did I. And slowly, but surely, in the weeks and months to come, the community began to change.
You see, the challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one night. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have little; who've been told that they cannot have what they dream; that they cannot be what they imagine.
Yes they can.
We are the hope of the father who goes to work before dawn and lies awake with doubts that tell him he cannot give his children the same opportunities that someone gave him.
Yes he can.
We are the hope of the woman who hears that her city will not be rebuilt; that she cannot reclaim the life that was swept away in a terrible storm.
Yes she can.
We are the hope of the future; the answer to the cynics who tell us our house must stand divided; that we cannot come together; that we cannot remake this world as it should be.
Because we know what we have seen and what we believe - that what began as a whisper has now swelled to a chorus that cannot be ignored; that will not be deterred; that will ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, and make this time different than all the rest - Yes. We. Can.
그는 자신의 경험담을 통해서 실패를 극복하고, 앞으로 나아가는 희망을 이야기 한다.'할 수 있다'고 하는 그의 연설을 듣고 있으면... 정말 할 수 있을 것 같다.
[Election Night Victory Speech,Grant Park,Illinois, November 4, 2008]
그는 미국이 지금까지 많이 왔지만... 앞으로 변화하고 더 나아갈 미래가 있음을 말한다.
그리고, 이를 냉소하는 사람들에게 '우리는 민중의 영혼을 하나로 합치는 시대를 초월한 신념으로 답할 것이다"라고 말한다.
"Yes, we can."
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves ? if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time ? to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth ? that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:
Yes, We Can.
위 내용은 앞선 2008년 1월 8일의 New Hampshire Primary Speech에서도 아래와 같이 언급했던 적이 있다.
(사실 나 역시 우리나라 정치에 대해 회의적이었는데, 노무현대통령을 보면서 변화가 가능하지 않을까 하는 희망을 가졌었기에 이를 떠오르게 만드는 이 부분이 오바마의 연설에서 가장 마음에 드는 대목 중 하나다.)
[Inaugural Address - Jan. 20, 2009]
2009년 취임 연설...
그는 미국이 여전히 건재한 능력을 가지고 있고... 새롭게 시작할 수 있음을 이야기한다.
그리고, 미국의 건국 시기에 조상들의 일화를 인용하면서, 국민의 마음을 뜨겁게 만든다.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
그의 주요 연설은 위에서 보는 것처럼... 텍스트와 동영상 모두 인터넷에서 쉽게 접할 수 있다.
http://www.obamadownloads.com/obama-mp3s.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Barack_Obama/Selected_quote