Friday, July 31, 2009

把酒言歡 White House Beer Summit


Posted by Picasa


Over beers, a taste of what’s to come
Gates, Crowley vow to meet again
By Joseph Williams, Globe Staff | July 31, 2009

WASHINGTON - They did not link arms, and there were no public apologies. But a subdued meeting over beers on the White House patio last evening appeared to achieve President Obama’s goal of encouraging a deeper dialogue on race between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley.

The White House, which carefully choreographed the event, kept reporters out and would not disclose what was said after the unlikely trio, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, sipped their cold ones. But after the images of a peaceful dialogue were beamed live on television, Crowley said he and Gates had agreed to meet again and will continue discussing their differences.

“Two gentlemen agreed to disagree,’’ Crowley told reporters at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington after he left the White House. “This was a positive step in moving forward,’’ he said, not only for Cambridge, but the nation.

The meeting - convened by Obama - was an important icebreaker between two men whose confrontation two weeks ago blew up into a national debate on race, police power, and liberal elites. Accompanied by members of their families, Crowley and Gates began their visit with a tour of the White House; their separate groups met midway through the tour and joined as one large group for the remainder. “And that was the start,’’ said Crowley. “It was very cordial.’’

In a statement last night on theroot.com, Gates applauded Obama for arranging the meeting and described his initial encounter with Crowley as “an accident of time and place.’’

“It is incumbent upon Sergeant Crowley and me to utilize the great opportunity that fate has given us to foster greater sympathy among the American public for the daily perils of policing on the one hand, and for the genuine fears of racial profiling on the other hand,’’ he said.

Gates said he has come to understand and appreciate the daily sacrifices police officers make on our behalf. “I’m also grateful that we live in a country where freedom of speech is a sacrosanct value, and I hope that one day we can get to know each other better, as we began to do at the White House this afternoon.

“At this point, I am hopeful that we can all move on, and that this experience will prove an occasion for education, not recrimination.’’

Scholars said the meeting was apparently an unprecedented intervention in a local dispute by a sitting US president, part of the White House damage control after Obama said in a press conference last week that Cambridge police, responding to a report of a possible break-in, “acted stupidly’’ by arresting Gates at his home.

A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed that two-thirds of those questioned disapproved of the way the president handled the incident.

Though other factors also dragged down his ratings - including anxiety about the economy, his healthcare overhaul, and the spiraling deficit - the poll indicated that the president’s approval ratings among whites slipped from 53 percent late last week to 46 percent early this week.

Obama’s remarks touched off a firestorm of criticism that threatened to overshadow his message on healthcare and other key agenda items. He later called Crowley to clarify his remarks and invited him and Gates for a drink at his place in Washington.

The president and his aides tried to lower expectations in the hours before the highly anticipated White House get-together.

“This is not a summit,’’ Obama said shortly before the meeting. “This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other.

“It’s an attempt to have some personal interaction when an issue has become so hyped and so symbolic that you lose sight of the fact that there are people involved, including myself, all of whom are imperfect,’’ he said.

But the media attention was intense. Cable TV news shows ran countdown clocks to the meeting and dispatched live trucks and extra reporters to the White House.

The episode was the most significant racial controversy to engulf the nation’s first black president six months into his first term, and it forced the White House to resort to damage control.

Gates, returning home from an overseas trip July 16, had help forcing open a jammed front door, but a woman who works nearby saw them and called 911.

Although Gates showed police identification proving he wasn’t an intruder, he and Crowley had a confrontation, and Crowley arrested him for disorderly conduct.

The charges were dropped, but Gates - an influential scholar on race in America - accused Cambridge police of racial profiling and angrily demanded an apology. Cambridge police said Crowley did nothing wrong, because Gates was loud and abusive.

After criticizing Crowley on national television, Obama’s public approval ratings quickly slipped.

“The impression is they think he really shouldn’t have injected himself in this thing in the first place,’’ according to Michael Dimock of the Pew Research Center.

It’s highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a president to become personally involved in a local dispute, according to Gil Troy, a scholar on the American presidency at McGill University in Toronto.

President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to the White House to discuss race in 1901 and personally talked to both sides to resolve a miner’s strike a year later, but “I cannot think of a president intervening in what really was a very personal dispute between two individuals,’’ Troy said in an e-mail interview.

Obama’s decision to weigh in on Gates’s arrest “was striking enough, [and] to take that next step is quite extraordinary - but is a clever way of moving beyond the discomfort some have with the chief executive officer of the United States criticizing the Cambridge police.’’

David Abel of the Globe staff, reporting from Boston, contributed to this report.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A Stupid Act 愚蠢行為


Posted by Picasa




愚蠢行為

事件被奧巴馬總統稱之為“愚蠢的行為”是發生在麻州劍橋市。這個市一向被人打趣地說成是“劍橋人民共和國”,這美喻是說明劍橋市是一個開明、進步、前衛的城市,不單是全世界最著名學府哈佛大學的所在地,亦以漂亮、迷人的市容見稱。

在本月16日,一名40 歲在劍橋工作的婦女,打了一個911的電話,報稱有兩名男子企圖入屋,其中一名貌似西班牙語裔人,事後一名男子離去,另一人仍在屋內,門外有兩件行李。劍橋市的一名警察沙展(三劃)應召到場調查,十分謹慎,抱有極之懷疑的態度。在抵達現場後,並要求增援,在報告中說兩名攜帶背包的黑種男子入屋。沒有人能真實地說出,在屋內發生了什麼事情,事後有關雙方各執一詞,只知一名黑種男子被警察帶上手扣,帶返警署落案,控以“行為不檢”罪。

如要重組事件發生的經過,大致上會是這樣﹕哈佛大學著名非美學者紀爾教授,剛訪問完中國,在飛抵波士頓勞根機場後,召的士返回在劍橋市的寓所,不知什樣,發覺無法打開進入屋裏的大門,於是要求這位黑人的士司機協助,弄開沙窗門進入,兩件攜帶的行李還放在屋前平台。一名在附近工作的婦人見狀,以為有人強行入屋,便打911報警。劍橋警察沙展郭利奉召到場調查,極有可能與這教授在屋內發生爭吵,便電召增援,有數名哈佛大學校警到場。郭利沙展要求紀爾教授步出屋外,隨即扣上手扣,押上警車,帶返警署。

消息傳出後,輿論一片嘩然。因為,被捕男子是一名哈佛大學教授,事發現場就是在他的家中。數天後,在白宮舉行的一個記者招待會上,奧巴馬總統被問及對這事件的看法時,作出了這樣的評論﹕現在,因為不在現場,沒有看到的全部事實,我不知道種族因素起了什麼作用,但我認為可公平地說,第一,我們任何人都會感到非常憤怒 ; 第二,劍橋警察採取逮捕行動是很愚蠢的,已經有證據證明他們是在自己的家裡;第三,我想我們都知道,除了這起事件,這個國家有長期記錄,不成比例地,非洲裔和拉美裔被執法者截停,這是一個事實。

雖然,奧巴馬的態度是非常明顯的,判斷十分正確,但是,也惹來非議。有的認為奧巴馬是說明了事實,但無助消除全國的種族偏見。面對著這些問題,作為總統是不能回避的,立場必須是清晰的。就正如這哈佛大學教授所說,他本身就是執法者種族標籤的典型事例。一個白人警察去逮捕一名黑人,已經很自然地會是傳媒報導的焦點。不過,還要看看警察到場的目的,是調查一宗懷疑有人強行入屋事件,而事實證明,“強行入屋”的人就是屋主本身,受過“敏感訓練”的執法者,應立即離去便了事,無論事主如何揚聲、吵鬧,亦是在他家中,更非調查的本意,不可能構成逮捕的理由。因此,在事發3天後,劍橋警察當局便徹銷對紀爾教授的控罪,這是適當的做法,無謂浪費警察資源。

批評奧巴馬的人說,總統不適當地過早下斷語,更是用詞失當,評論警察逮捕行為時,用了“愚蠢”這字眼,是過了頭。這無疑也提醒大家,往後在處理這些敏感的問題時,各方都要“聰明”一點,這當然是包括奧巴馬本人在內。為平息這次事件,總統會在本星期四,邀請紀爾教授與郭利沙展到白宮一聚,握手言和,把酒言歡,屆時相方來一個“相逢一笑泯恩仇”,不是一個較為完美的結局嗎!剩下來更嚴肅的問題,就是認真的檢討執法者公平地對待每一個人的課題。不要以為有了一位黑人當總統,種族問題便會消失無形,而事實上,大多數美國人已能接納一個黑人當選總統的同時,黑人教會被人蓄意放火、破壞的數目亦增加。在政治觸覺上,人們變得比較敏銳,但是,在種族問題上,無論是執法者,或是一般平民老百姓,減少不必要的無知與愚蠢的行為,仍是有待努力多下一番苦功。

Friday, July 24, 2009

NY City Hall 3


Posted by Picasa

NY City Hall 2


Posted by Picasa

NY City Hall 1


Posted by Picasa

NY Chinatown


Posted by Picasa

Hudson River 2


Posted by Picasa

Hudson River 1


Posted by Picasa

Ground Zero Memorial Park 3


Posted by Picasa

Ground Zero Memorial Park 2


Posted by Picasa

NY Ground Zero Memorial Park 1


Posted by Picasa

NY Ground Zero 2


Posted by Picasa

NY Ground Zero 1


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 13


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 12


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 11


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 10


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 9


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 8


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 7


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 6


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 5


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 4


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 3


Posted by Picasa

NY Botanical Garden 2


Posted by Picasa