VOA慢速英语2011--Legal Education, From Shakespeare; A Mix

THIS IS AMERICA - A Legal Education, From Shakespeare; A Mixed-Race Couple Who Fought the Law

BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. This week on our program, our subject is law and society. We hear about a new film that tells the story of a couple who helped make interracial marriage legal in America. And we hear about a new book that tells lawyers and law students what they can learn from Shakespeare.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: William Shakespeare died almost four centuries ago in sixteen sixteen. Yet the great English writer's understanding of human nature is timeless.
Kenji Yoshino is a professor of constitutional law at New York University. Professor Yoshino has written a book called "A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare's Plays Teach Us About Justice."
For example, take the play "Measure for Measure." There are two officials who represent opposite ideas about enforcing the law. Professor Yoshino says one of them is driven by mercy and empathy, the ability to understand another person's feelings.
KENJI YOSHINO: "That notion of judging is represented by the Duke Vicentio at the beginning of the play. And what Vicentio’s problem is that’s he’s so merciful that the state sinks into anarchy²."
STEVE EMBER: The other official, Lord Angelo, is a judge who takes over for Vicentio. Lord Angelo enforces the law without any mercy. By the end, says Kenji Yoshino, both approaches are shown to be wrong.
KENJI YOSHINO: "And I want to say, look, Shakespeare got there first and he eliminated both of these extremes. He showed that the first extreme is dangerous because it lead to too much mercy. Mercy in an individual is a wonderful thing, but mercy on the part of a government actor can be a very dangerous thing."
But the professor says Shakespeare also understood that strict enforcement of the law can be unjust.
KENJI YOSHINO: "So what we’re looking for is jurists who are able to balance the claims of empathy against the claims of the rule of law and can find that middle path."
The debate over judges and empathy played a part in the Senate confirmation³ process for Sonia Sotomayor. She became the first Hispanic justice on the United States Supreme⁴ Court in two thousand nine. This was what she said at her confirmation hearing.
SONIA SOTOMAYOR: "We're not robots, to listen to evidence and don’t have feelings. We have to recognize those feelings and put them aside."
BARBARA KLEIN: Shakespeare dealt with questions of justice in many of his plays. Kenji Yoshino points out that in the England of Shakespeare's time, the modern state and the rule of law were evolving.
In "Othello," lago convinces Othello that his wife has been unfaithful to him. The evidence is that his wife no longer has the cloth handkerchief that Othello gave her as a symbol of his love. In fact, lago had asked his own wife to steal the handkerchief. Othello does not know that.
OTHELLO: Villian, be sure thou prove my love a whore;
Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof:
Or by the worth of man’s eternal soul,
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my waked wrath⁵!"
STEVE EMBER: Professor Yoshino explains.
KENJI YOSHINO: "Shakespeare calls this a problem of ocular proof, the idea that we need to see evidence before we believe in it -- and that, oftentimes, when metaphysical questions of guilt⁶ or innocence⁷ are difficult for us to answer, we have a tendency to reduce them to questions that pertain⁸ to physical evidence. So when we can’t measure what’s important, we make important what we can measure."
The law professor sees an example of this in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson in nineteen ninety-five. The former football star was accused of killing⁹ his ex-wife and a male friend of hers in Los Angeles.
Many people believed that the case against him was strong. But his lawyer Johnnie Cochran showed the jury a glove found at the crime scene. He showed that the glove appeared not to fit Mr. Simpson’s hand, and he told the jury again and again:
JOHNNIE COCHRAN: "If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit¹⁰."
Several members of the jury said the glove influenced their decision to find O.J. Simpson not guilty of the criminal charges. A jury in a civil court, however, did later find him responsible for money damages in a case brought by family members of the victims.
BARBARA KLEIN: Professor Yoshino says the Shakespeare play that deals most directly with the law is "The Merchant of Venice." In this story, a trial takes place to decide if the moneylender Shylock can take a pound of flesh from a borrower who fails to repay his loan.
The court must decide if the contract can be enforced even though it could result in the death of the borrower, Antonio. In the end, Antonio is saved by Balthazar. Balthazar is a young lawyer who is really Portia, a woman, and who has this to say about mercy.
BALTHAZAR (PORTIA): "The quality of mercy is not strain’d
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blest;"
STEVE EMBER: Law professor and author Kenji Yoshino says his students benefit from reading Shakespeare.
KENJI YOSHINO: "Law students continuously surprise me in their capacity to respond to the humanities, and when I teach my courses in law and literature, it is really as a healing or a recuperative experience both for the students and for me, because I think that what a legal education does, to paraphrase¹¹ another author, is that is sharpens the mind by narrowing it."
This narrowing of the mind can help law students recognize important facts. But literature can help them understand human conflict, and he says no one has more insight into that than William Shakespeare.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: President Barack Obama's Kenyan father and American mother were married in Hawaii in nineteen sixty-one. At that time mixed-race marriage was still illegal in a number of states. But six years later, in nineteen sixty-seven, the Supreme Court struck down the last of these laws.
The case that led to that historic decision was brought by an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving. Their story is the subject of a new documentary called "The Loving Story."
The film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and will air on the HBO channel next February.
STEVE EMBER: The story of the Lovings is little known compared to other historic civil rights cases.
Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter met in nineteen fifty-one. At the time, Mildred was eleven years old and Richard was seventeen. He was white; she was of African and Native American ancestry¹². They grew up in the same Virginia town of Central Point.
Mildred later recalled what it was like living with racial segregation¹³.
MILDRED LOVING: "The whites and colored went to school differently. Things like that, you know. You couldn't go in the same restaurants. I knew that. But I didn’t realize how bad it was until we got married."
BARBARA KLEIN: In nineteen fifty-eight, when Mildred was eighteen, she became pregnant. Virginia law barred interracial marriage. So the couple got married in nearby Washington, DC.
Mildred recalled how six weeks later, police broke down the door of their small house in Central Point and arrested them.
MILDRED LOVING: "I guess it was about two a.m. And I saw this light, and I woke up, and it was the police standing¹ beside the bed, and he told us to get up, that we was under arrest."
STEVE EMBER: The Lovings were jailed and charged with violating Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws. As their sentence, they were ordered to leave the state for twenty-five years.
They moved to Washington and had three children. But Mildred was so unhappy that, in nineteen sixty-three she wrote to the United States attorney general, Robert Kennedy.
She asked if new civil rights laws would help. He told her to contact the American Civil Liberties Union. Two young lawyers, Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop, took the case.
In "The Loving Story." Mr. Cohen explains what they faced.
BERNARD COHEN: "Challenging the anti-miscegenation laws was the most serious threat to the white racists, and even those whites who were not racist¹⁴ but were very pro-establishment. I looked at it as an unbelievable challenge for a lawyer one or two years out of law school, to be getting involved in what was sure to be a major civil rights case."
STEVE EMBER: Nancy Buirski from North Carolina directed and produced "The Loving Story." The film includes documentary footage shot by Hope Ryden, who filmed the couple and their lawyers as they prepared for trial.
Ms. Buirski says the Lovings were quiet, working-class people who did not like public attention. They did not even attend the legal arguments when their case reached the United States Supreme Court.
NANCY BUIRSKI: "And it wasn’t surprising, given how reticent¹⁵ they were about publicity¹⁶ in general. They were a very modest, humble¹⁷ couple. They really weren’t doing this to change history. They never saw themselves as heroes."
Yet that was what they became, she says, through their desire to remain married and raise their children in a place they loved.
NANCY BUIRSKI: "Apparently¹⁸ they never disagreed about any of it. They were very much in love. And, as far as I'm concerned, they in some ways upend stereotypes¹⁹, because they weren’t activists²⁰. They just wanted to go home and live in Virginia with their families."
On June twelfth, nineteen sixty-seven, the Supreme Court decided²¹ that laws against interracial marriage were unconstitutional. The court struck down what were known as anti-miscegenation laws in the sixteen states that still had them.
The couple returned to their Virginia town. Richard built a home where they lived the rest of their lives. He died in nineteen seventy-five when a drunk driver hit his car. Mildred died in two thousand eight.
BARBARA KLEIN: Today, about eight percent of all marriages in the United States are between people of different races. Fifteen percent of new marriages are racially mixed.
Some interracial couples celebrate the anniversary of the Loving decision, June twelfth, as "Loving Day." The day is also increasingly celebrated²² by supporters of same-sex marriage -- a right that Mildred Loving supported in her later years. Currently same-sex marriage is permitted in five of the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake, with reporting by Mike O'Sullivan and Carolyn Weaver²³. I’m Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can find transcripts²⁴ and MP3s of our programs and activities for learning English. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 anarchy   

n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• There would be anarchy if we had no police.要是没有警察，社会就会无法无天。
• The country was thrown into a state of anarchy.这国家那时一下子陷入无政府状态。

3 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

4 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

5 wrath   

n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒

参考例句：

• His silence marked his wrath. 他的沉默表明了他的愤怒。
• The wrath of the people is now aroused. 人们被激怒了。

6 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

7 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

8 pertain   

v.(to)附属，从属；关于；有关；适合，相称

参考例句：

• His remark did not pertain to the question.他的话同这个问题不相干。
• It does not pertain to you to instruct him.你不适合教训他。

9 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

10 acquit   

vt.宣判无罪；(oneself)使(自己)表现出

参考例句：

• That fact decided the judge to acquit him.那个事实使法官判他无罪。
• They always acquit themselves of their duty very well.他们总是很好地履行自己的职责。

11 paraphrase   

vt.将…释义，改写；n.释义，意义

参考例句：

• You may read the prose paraphrase of this poem.你可以看一下这首诗的散文释义。
• Paraphrase the following sentences or parts of sentences using your own words.用你自己的话解释下面的句子或句子的一部分。

12 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

13 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

14 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

15 reticent   

adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的

参考例句：

• He was reticent about his opinion.他有保留意见。
• He was extremely reticent about his personal life.他对自己的个人生活讳莫如深。

16 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。

17 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

18 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

19 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

22 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

23 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

24 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句