肯尼迪遇刺50週年時的達拉斯
After John F Kennedy was murdered on November 22 1963, Dallas became known as “the city of hate”. Its citizens were charged with creating a fervid rightist atmosphere in which Lee Harvey Oswald felt moved to shoot the president. Mike Rawlings, the city's current mayor, told me: “There are stories of people going to places and almost being embarrassed to be from Dallas back in the 1960s, early 1970s.”
1963年11月22日，美國總統約翰•肯尼迪(John edy)遇刺身亡後，達拉斯就背上了“仇恨之城”的名聲。人們指責達拉斯市民製造了一種狂熱的右翼氛圍，從而促使李•哈維•奧斯瓦爾德(Lee Harvey Oswald)槍殺了總統。達拉斯現任市長邁克•羅林斯(Mike Rawlings)告訴我：“有報道稱，在20世紀60年代和70年代初，達拉斯人去外地時，會因爲自己是達拉斯人而感到尷尬。”I found Rawlings sneaking a catnap at the New Cities Summit in Sao Paulo in June. The man who came to Dallas in 1976 with $200 in his pocket and made it to president of Pizza Hut was taking the briefest break from his usual activity: plugging Dallas. But how does any city incorporate a global trauma into its image? It's taken Dallas 50 years to learn to deal with the murder.
今年6月，在聖保羅的新城市峯會(New Cities Summit)上，我趁羅林斯偷偷打盹時找到了他。這位1976年揣着200美元來到達拉斯、後來當過必勝客(Pizza Hut)總裁的達拉斯市長正在小憩，暫時把他的日常活動——宣傳達拉斯——放在了一邊。但一個城市在經歷一場聞名全球的創傷之後，如何在世人面前構建自己的形象？達拉斯花了50年的時間，才學會坦然接受那起刺殺事件。Many Americans in 1963 couldn't accept that a lone loser like Oswald had changed history. Consequently, they blamed larger entities. Conspiracy theorists accused the Central Intelligence Agency or Cuban exiles. Others blamed Dallas itself.
1963年，讓許多美國人無法接受的是，歷史居然被奧斯瓦爾德這麼個孤獨的失敗者改寫了。因此，他們怪罪於一些更大的組織和羣體。陰謀論者指責美國中央情報局(CIA)或古巴流亡者策劃了刺殺事件。其他人則譴責達拉斯這個城市。
To quote Texas Monthly magazine: “The tragedy seemed to seal the perception of our state as being populated by a bunch of trigger-happy yeehaws who were beyond forgiveness.” Because few outsiders knew anything else about Dallas, the assassination branded the city. In truth, Dallas in 1963 did house some noisy rightist Kennedy-haters. Days before he arrived, “Wanted for Treason” leaflets featuring him appeared around town. And on the day, the Dallas Morning News published an ominously black-bordered full-page ad portraying him as a communist fellow-traveller. Reading it, Kennedy told his wife: “We're heading into nut country today.”
《德克薩斯月刊》(Texas Monthly)寫道：“那起悲劇似乎把世人對本州的印象固定了下來，即一個充斥着牛仔的州，那些牛仔動輒開槍、根本不值得原諒。”因爲外面的人對達拉斯的其他方面知之甚少，於是刺殺事件成了這座城市的標籤。事實上，1963年的達拉斯確實有一些討厭肯尼迪、吵吵嚷嚷的右翼分子。在肯尼迪抵達達拉斯之前的幾天，印着他的肖像、寫有“通緝叛國者”(Wanted for Treason)的傳單在城裏隨處可見。就在肯尼迪遇刺當天，《達拉斯晨報》(Dallas Morning News)整版刊出了一則頗不吉利的黑邊廣告，將他描繪爲“共產主義的同路人”。看到廣告，肯尼迪對妻子說：“我們今天要去一個瘋子國了。”After the murder, many diagnosed city-wide hate. Bill Minutaglio, co-author of the new book Dallas 1963, says: “Nothing like this could have happened, but in Dallas.”
肯尼迪遇刺後，許多人稱達拉斯充斥着仇恨。新書《達拉斯1963》(Dallas 1963)的合著者比爾•米努塔利奧(Bill Minutaglio)說：“除了達拉斯，這種事不可能在其他任何地方發生。”Yet blaming Dallas is illogical. Oswald was a Marxist nut, not a rightwing nut. And as Rawlings says, “Dallas loves its presidents.” Nearly one in three Dallasites turned out to see Kennedy, with barely an unfriendly sign on display. In the motorcade, the Texan governor's wife, Nellie Connally, gushed, “Mr President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you.” She was mostly right. Assassinations, Americans soon learnt, can happen anywhere. Cities don't kill people. People kill people.
但譴責達拉斯是沒有道理的。奧斯瓦爾德是馬克思主義瘋子，而不是右翼瘋子。正如羅林斯所說：“達拉斯人愛戴總統。”近三分之一的達拉斯人爲了親眼一睹肯尼迪尊容而走出家門，現場幾乎沒有不友好的跡象。在車隊中，德克薩斯州州長夫人內莉•康納利(Nellie Connally)充滿感情地說：“總統先生，您不能說達拉斯人不愛戴您。”她的話幾乎沒錯兒。美國人很快明白，刺殺事件可能發生在任何地方。兇手不是城市，而是人。After 1963, says Rawlings, many Dallasites “wanted to move on as quickly as possible”. They rarely discussed the murder. Gradually, though, the mood changed. Rawlings says: “In the 1980s, people started to think: we are the home of a very important moment in history. Not only because of the assassination, but that seemed to be the dawning of a new era. After that came the Vietnam war, civil rights came to its fruition, women's liberation. There was a new world, a door that somehow people walked through. Citizens said, 'We've got to make sure we capture the truth of this history.“”
羅林斯說，1963年以後，許多達拉斯人“希望儘快走出這件事的陰影”。他們很少談及刺殺事件。但民衆的情緒漸漸變了。羅林斯說：“20世紀80年代，人們開始認爲，達拉斯見證了一個非常重要的歷史時刻。這不僅是因爲那一刻發生了刺殺事件，更是因爲那一刻似乎標誌着一個新時代的到來。在那之後，越戰升級、民權運動開花結果、第二波女權運動興起。世界煥然一新，人類歷史不知怎麼的翻開了新的篇章。當時的達拉斯人說，‘我們必須確保準確地理解這段歷史。’”Oswald had shot from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Plans to tear the building down were dropped. In 1989 it became a museum. Rawlings says, “For many years it was the one site that if someone visited you and said, 'What do you want to do in the afternoon?” you would say, 'Want to go down to the Sixth Floor Museum?“”
奧斯瓦爾德開槍的地方，位於達拉斯的德克薩斯州教科書倉庫大樓(Texas School Book Depository)六層。達拉斯有過種種拆除那座大樓的計劃，但後來都未執行。1989年，那座大樓變成了一座博物館。羅林斯說：“多年以來，那座博物館一直是來達拉斯的人必須造訪的景點。如果有人來達拉斯拜訪你，問你下午想幹嘛？你會回答說，想不想去六樓博物館(Sixth Floor Museum)？”He adds: “I don't think we should be defensive or try to remove anything. It is what it is. That part of history will always be in Dallas.” Even Oswald, says Rawlings, belongs in the city's history. He attended elementary school in Dallas, and returned in 1962 after his Soviet jaunt.
他補充道：“我覺得我們不應該戒備心太強，或抹掉過去的任何痕跡。事實就是事實。那段歷史將永遠留在達拉斯身上。”羅林斯說，即便是奧斯瓦爾德，也將永遠在達拉斯的歷史佔有一席之地。他曾在達拉斯上小學，短暫遊歷蘇聯後於1962年又回到該市。The city can face these facts today largely because the assassination's stigma has faded. Rawlings says: “With time that changed, with the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys [football team] and different things that Dallas started to become known for. It became a secondary branding for the city.”
達拉斯如今能夠直面這些現實，很大程度上是因爲刺殺事件帶來的恥辱感已經褪去。羅林斯說：“隨着時間的推移，人們開始因達拉斯牛仔隊（Dallas Cowboys，美式橄欖球隊）等各種其他的東西知道達拉斯。刺殺事件成爲了達拉斯衆多標誌中比較不顯著的一個。”On Friday, the world will be watching Dallas. Rawlings says: “Before I became mayor, I realised that the one moment people were going to pay more attention to Dallas while I was mayor was November 22 2013. People look to 50th anniversaries. They remember where they were, and you retell the story.” Friday's commemoration will be sober and “very untouristy”, he adds. “I'm very shy about trying to do too much on this day. If I can stand up straight, salute the president and move on, I think Dallas has done what's right. Our brand won't be made because of this.”
本週五（11月22日），達拉斯將匯聚世界的目光。羅林斯說：“我在當上市長之前就意識到，我任期內人們最關注達拉斯的時刻將是2013年11月22日。人們關注50週年。他們回憶過去，而你要重新講述那段歷史。”他補充道，週五的紀念活動將是莊重的，也“儘量不會帶有吸引遊客的色彩”。“我很擔心這一天的紀念活動過於大張旗鼓。如果我能筆直地站起身，向肯尼迪總統致敬，然後把歷史的這一頁翻過去，我覺得達拉斯就做對了。我們無法憑藉紀念活動樹立我們的形象。”Where was Rawlings on November 22 1963? “In elementary school in Leawood, Kansas. They moved us to the gymnasium, and I remember sitting Indian-style on the floor when the principal told us, and we were sent home. My mother was a teacher, and before she passed away she gave me a stack of letters that she had had her elementary-school grade write about their reflections on that weekend. It was marvellous. Just a bunch of kids in a random school in Kansas talking about this shows the depth and breadth of this moment in people's lives.”
1963年11月22日那天，羅林斯在哪兒？“那天我在堪薩斯州利伍德(Leawood)的一所小學裏。校方將我們轉移到體育館，我記得大家盤腿坐在地板上，校長向我們介紹了事件的經過，然後學校就宣佈放學了。我母親是小學教師，她曾讓自己教的小學生寫作文，敘述他們對週末那起事件的感想，後來她在去世前將那一疊作文交給了我。看到那一疊作文，我感覺很奇妙。堪薩斯州一所普通的小學裏的孩子們都在作文裏談論此事，僅此就能表明，這一歷史瞬間對人們的生活產生了多麼廣泛而深刻的影響。”
