对美国《宪法》第一修正案的反思（中英文）

作者：John Wu

对第一修正案的反思

我相信我们大多数人都同意，这个国家已经得到了两个多世纪的祝福。在过去两百年中，美国人民大部分时间都过着和平与繁荣的生活。然而，我觉得我们中的许多人不明白为什么会这样，没有反思他们自由和繁荣背后的原因。我坚信，这一切都归功于我们的开国元勋们通过宝贵的《宪法》为这个国家奠定的坚实基础！

最近，我有一个机会与许多高中生交谈。

我从这样一个问题开始：

• “你知道第一修正案吗”？
• 他们中的许多人自信回答到“freedom of speech”；

一些人甚至可以列出全部的议题：“freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, assembly, and petition”。然而，没有人使用了原始文件中相同的顺序和语言精确地答复。同样，他们都没能准确回答我接下来的两个问题。

我的第二个问题是：

• “你知道第一修正案是要保护你的自由免受谁的侵害吗？
• 只有少数人能够正确回答，第一修正案旨在保护我们免受Government的侵害！

当我再问：

• “知道为什么‘freedom of religion’是首要受到保护的权利吗？”
• 没有一个学生能够答复了。

于是我给出了我的反思， 听到我的答复，所有人都同意 （这些年轻人太可爱了！）。

以下是我的反思：

我们的开国元勋们一定预见到，在未来的某一天，政府可能会演变成一个怪物，政府想要控制一切（也许那些当权者认为他们这样做更好！）。政府想要控制的第一件事是“行使religion”的自由，因为religion本质上是你的faith，是你最基本相信的东西（关于上帝，你存在的意义，你的世界观等）。如果你对自己的faith没有自由，那么本质上说，speech、press, assembly, and petition的自由都没有意义了！说到底，言论只不过是你信仰的表达！如果你的freedom of faith被Government控制，那么你也等于失去了freedom of speech！

你同意吗？我们需要关注的另一件事是，我们的开国元勋们特别使用的原话（他们是多么有见地！），religion自由是指“自由行使religion” 的权利。事实是，如果你失去了自由行使你的religion的权利，那么你的religion就被锁在笼子里，已经部分死亡了！如果你被禁止在公共领域行使你的religion，你的religion就是正在消亡，你的自由也正在消失！

我亲爱的同胞们，第一修正案是为这个时刻，为了我们这个时代的美利坚合众国！

（英文）Reflections on the First Amendment

I believe we all agree that this country, The United States, has been blessed over two centuries. American people have enjoyed peaceful and prosperous life most of time in last two hundred years. However, I feel many of us do not understand why so, failing to reflect on the reasons behind their freedom and prosperity. I firmly believe it is all due to the solid foundation our Founding Fathers built for this country, precisely, through the precious Constitution!

Recently I had an opportunity to have conversations with many high school students. 

I started with such a question：

• “Do you know the first Amendment”? 
• Most of them confidently replied, “freedom of speech”；

some of them could even list out all of the exhibited freedoms: “freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, assembly, and petition”.  However, I noticed, no one replied precisely using the same order and the language used in the original document, likewise they failed to answer my next two questions. 

After hearing of my second question：

• “Do you know from whom the First Amendment was set to protect your freedom”? 

• only a few could answer correctly that the First Amendment was intended to protect us from “the government”. 

When I asked：

• “Do you know why freedom of religion is the first right that needs to be protected”? 
• Not even one student could answer me. 

I then had the opportunity to share my thoughts to them, and amazingly ALL agreed with me after they heard my reflections (young people are so lovely!). 

Here is what I said plainly:

Our Founding Fathers must have foreseen that someday in the future, the government could evolve and become a monster, that the government may want to control everything (maybe those in power think it is better for them to do so). And the very first thing the government wants to control is the “exercising of religion”, as religion means essentially your faith which is fundamentally what you believe (about God, meaning of your existence, your worldview etc.). If you don’t have the freedom about what you believe, then the freedom of speech, press, assembly and petition are all meaningless! After all, speech is nothing but the expression of what you believe! If your freedom of faith is controlled by government, then you lost freedom of speech too！

Do you agree? Another thing we need to pay attention to is the original word our Founding Fathers used（how insightful they were!） The freedom of religion is all about “free EXERCISING of religion”. The fact is, if you lose the right of free exercising your religion, then your religion is locked in a cage, already partially dead! If you are prohibited to exercise your religion in public squares (schools, libraries, courts etc.), your religion is dying, your freedom is fading away!

My dear fellow citizens, I firmly believe that the First Amendment is for this season, our age of The United States of America!

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