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1、第 1 页 “Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confi1 特征码 YFjvriIuCMnCkcxaGjCh Jimmy Carter: “Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence“ Good Evening: This a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President o
2、f the United States. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams, and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you. During the past three years Ive spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorga
3、nizing the government, our nations economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have bee increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you
4、ve heard more and 第 2 页 more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nations hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future. Ten days ago, I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject - energy. For the fifth time I wo
5、uld have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative remendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you: Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve o
6、ur serious energy problem? Its clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper - deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and to listen to the voices
7、 of America. I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society - business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. 第 3 页 And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and wo omen like you. It has been an extraordinary ten days,
8、and I want to share with you what Ive heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical ments that I wrote down. This from a southern governor: “Mr. President, you are not leading this nation - youre just managing the government.” “You dont see the people enough
9、anymore.” “Some of your Cabinet members dont seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples.” “Dont talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our mon good.” “Mr. President, were in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears.” “I
10、f you lead, Mr. President, we will follow.” 第 4 页 Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation. This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: “I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power.” And this from a young Chicano: “Some o
11、f us have suffered from recession all our lives.” “Some people have wasted energy, but others havent had anything to waste.” And this from a religious leader: “No material shortage can touch the important things like Gods love for us or our love for one another.” And I like this one particularly fro
12、m a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: “The big shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you cant sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first.” This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: “Mr. President, we are
13、confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis.” Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of ments and advice. Ill read just a 第 5 页 few. “We cant go on consuming forty percent more energy then we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemploym
14、ent.” “Weve got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the worlds energy, but the United States has twenty-four percent.” And this is one of the most vivid statements: “Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife.” “There will be other cartels and other shortages
15、. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future.” This was a good one: “Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.” And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: “The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the 第 6 页 energ
16、y problem on a war footing.” And the last that Ill read: “When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, dont issue us BB guns.” These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my longstanding concerns
17、about our nations underlying problems. I know, of course, being President, that government actions and legislation can be very important. Thats why Ive worked hard to put my campaign promises into law, and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people, I have b
18、een reminded again that all the legislation in the world cant fix whats wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. I do not mean our politic
19、al and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight 第 7 页 everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might. The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a c
20、risis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the
21、 political fabric of America. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has su
22、pported everything else - public institutions and 第 8 页 private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. Weve always believed in something called progress. Weve always had a faith tha
23、t the days of our children would be better than our own. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the
24、 living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom; and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also
25、 beginning to close the door on our past. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit munities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by 第 9 页 what one does, but by what one owns. But wev
26、e discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. Weve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time i
27、n the history of our country a majority of our peopl e believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen bel
28、ow that of all other people in the Western world. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is 第 10 页 a warning. These changes did n
29、ot happen overnight. Theyve e upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies
30、 were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate. We remember when the phrase “sound as a dollar” was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began
31、to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nations resources were limitless until 1973 when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil. These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed. Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal G
32、overnment and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nations life. Washington, 第 11 页 D.C., has bee an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness
33、 and politics as usual. What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hund reds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme positio
34、n defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends. Often you see paralysis and stagnation and d
35、rift. You dont like it, and neither do I. What can we do? 第 12 页 First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidenc
36、e to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans. One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: “Weve got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need
37、will not e from the White House, but from every house in America.” We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers
38、and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world. We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the moon. We are the generation that 第 13 页 dedicated our
39、 society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process, rebuild the unity and confidence of America. We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path Ive warned about tonigh
40、t, the path that leads to fragmentation and self- interest. Down that road lies a mi staken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to fail
41、ure. All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path - the path of mon purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. We can take the 第 14 页 first steps down that path
42、 as we begin to solve our energy problem. Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our mon destiny. *In litt
43、le more than two decades weve gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use es from foreign countries,* at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the
44、direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. Its a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. T
45、he energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them. 第 15 页 What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important. Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United
46、 States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped d
47、ead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one- half by the end of the next decade - a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day. Point two: To ensure t
48、hat we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. Im announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will 第 16 页 forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the
49、ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit. Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime mitment of funds and resources in our nations history to develop Americas own alternative sources of fuel - from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun. I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace two and a half million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation will issue up to five billion dollars