美国国家公共电台 NPR Blaming Victims For Mail Bombs Carries Echoes Of Civil Rights Bombings

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Before authorities apprehended¹ a suspect in the mail bomb spree, the case prompted all kinds of speculation² about the motivations that could be behind it. Here's what a talk radio host, Michael Savage³, had to say.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW, "THE SAVAGE NATION")

MICHAEL SAVAGE: It's a high probability that the whole thing is set up as a false flag to gain sympathy for the Democrats⁴ to get our minds off the hordes⁵ of illegal aliens approaching our southern border.

SIMON: That kind of talk echoes back to another era in American history when bombs were a tool of political intimidation⁶. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE⁷: In the 1950s and '60s, Birmingham, Ala., was known by another name.

JEFF DREW: Bombingham - Bombingham, Alabama - B-O-M-B.

ELLIOTT: Jeff Drew grew up on a street called Dynamite⁸ Hill because so many black families were bombed for moving into the predominantly white neighborhood.

DREW: It would push the furniture off the floor and break the windows and scare us all to death. So terrorism is nothing new for this part of Birmingham, Ala. We experienced it firsthand.

ELLIOTT: There were more than three dozen unsolved, racially motivated bombings in Birmingham during the civil rights era - mostly houses and churches. And Drew says there was a pattern after the attacks - authorities would accuse victims of planting the bombs.

DREW: That's the most inhumane thing you could think of. Who would bomb their own house?

ELLIOTT: But that rumor⁹ was widely circulated in white circles, says Diane McWhorter, who wrote a book about the Birmingham civil rights movement.

DIANE MCWHORTER: The understood motive¹⁰ was that blacks were bombing their own churches and buildings in order to raise money and get publicity¹¹ for the movement.

ELLIOTT: She says it was repeated publicly by politicians, including Alabama's segregationist¹² governor, George Wallace. Other common theories were that the bombings were ordered by Martin Luther King Jr., were part of a communist plot or orchestrated by the FBI.

MCWHORTER: It was repeated so often. I mean, I grew up hearing this from my own father. You know, I think they started believing it. And part of the reason they were able to believe it was that, until the 16th Street Church bombing in September of 1963, when four young girls were murdered, there had been no real fatalities¹³.

ELLIOTT: Even after that deadly Ku Klux Klan attack, police at first zeroed in on the church's black janitor¹⁴ as a suspect. Historian Taylor Branch says conspiracy¹⁵ theories were rampant¹⁶ across the South as African-Americans pushed for equal rights.

TAYLOR BRANCH: It shows the lengths that people will go to not to acknowledge something that they don't want to believe.

ELLIOTT: For instance, what happened in Mississippi during Freedom Summer in 1964.

BRANCH: Three of the civil rights workers were kidnapped by a sheriff's posse of Klansmen and murdered. And because the bodies weren't found, Mississippi officials denied that segregationists could have done this crime and said, first of all, they said there was a hoax¹⁷. Senator James Eastland even told that to the president on the phone.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JAMES EASTLAND: I don't believe there's three missing.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: You got their parents down here.

EASTLAND: I believe it's a publicity stunt¹⁸.

ELLIOTT: Branch says polarizing times, then and now, lead to an ideological¹⁹ climate where conspiracy theories thrive. It's a low point for the country, says Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama. He's a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted²⁰ the Birmingham church bombers²¹.

DOUG JONES: We are living in a time where words matter, just like they did back in the '60s. There were so many things that happened then based on the empowerment that public officials like George Wallace gave. Do people not understand what it takes to kind of tone down the rhetoric²² to make sure that things like this don't happen with some deranged²³ fool out there who wants to try to hurt people, thinking that he's got the OK to do it?

ELLIOTT: Federal officials declined to talk about potential political motivations, but in a news conference announcing the arrest, Attorney General Jeff Sessions acknowledged the suspect, quote, "appears to be a partisan²⁴." Debbie Elliott, NPR News.

1 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

2 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

3 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 hordes   

n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落

参考例句：

• There are always hordes of tourists here in the summer. 夏天这里总有成群结队的游客。
• Hordes of journalists jostled for position outside the conference hall. 大群记者在会堂外争抢位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 dynamite   

n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)

参考例句：

• The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
• The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。

9 rumor   

n.谣言，谣传，传说

参考例句：

• The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
• The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。

10 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

11 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

12 segregationist   

隔离主义者

参考例句：

• Recent federal action undermined the segregationist position. 近期的联邦行动消弱了隔离主义者的地位。

13 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 janitor   

n.看门人，管门人

参考例句：

• The janitor wiped on the windows with his rags.看门人用褴褛的衣服擦着窗户。
• The janitor swept the floors and locked up the building every night.那个看门人每天晚上负责打扫大楼的地板和锁门。

15 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

16 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

17 hoax   

v.欺骗，哄骗，愚弄；n.愚弄人，恶作剧

参考例句：

• They were the victims of a cruel hoax.他们是一个残忍恶作剧的受害者。
• They hoax him out of his money.他们骗去他的钱。

18 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

19 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

20 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

21 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

23 deranged   

adj.疯狂的

参考例句：

• Traffic was stopped by a deranged man shouting at the sky.一名狂叫的疯子阻塞了交通。
• A deranged man shot and killed 14 people.一个精神失常的男子开枪打死了14人。

24 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。