经济学人06:直率的前第一夫人贝蒂·福特

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　　讣告;贝蒂·福特;

　　Betty Bloomer Ford, an outspoken² First Lady, died on July 8th, aged⁴ 93;

　　贝蒂·布鲁姆·福特，直率的前第一夫人，于7月8日逝世，享年93岁;

　　All her life, Betty Ford loved to dance. At ten she was gliding⁵ round to the waltz and the foxtrot at social-dancing classes in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As a young woman, she was taught by Martha Graham and danced in her troupe⁶ at Carnegie Hall. (Later she persuaded her husband, Gerald R., to give Martha a medal; if you kept on at a man long enough, he would agree to anything.) In the White House she tried out disco steps, and shimmied to the Bump at dinner-dances. But if you tried to teach her an arabesque⁷ or a jetée，she turned into the worst ballet dancer who ever came down the road. She couldn't bear to be constrained⁸ like that. She was, as she put it once, a booby who only wanted to soar。

　　贝蒂·福特一生中都挚爱舞蹈，十岁时，她就在密歇根的大急流城参加交际舞学习班，自如的跳华尔兹和狐步舞。少女时期，她师从玛莎·葛兰姆，并随团在卡内基音乐大厅演出（后来她说服丈夫福特为玛莎颁发了一枚勋章。如果你纠缠一个男人足够长时间，他什么事情都会同意）。在白宫，她又学习了迪斯科，伴着西迷舞曲在晚宴上尽情摇摆。但如果你想让她学学阿拉贝斯克舞或者吉提，那她可是将是你见过的最差劲的芭蕾舞者了。她可受不了那种束缚，正如她自己说的，她只想做一个自由翱翔的笨鸟。

　　Of course, she could be proper too. In her brief stint⁹ as First Lady, from August 1974 to January 1977, she was always immaculately turned out. She wore white gloves (“these mitts”) whenever she had to do so. But, much as she adored clothes—the room-long rack at her house in Virginia had fallen off the wall, she had so many—all the ladylike public behaviour could be a bit of a strain.So too could the split-second scheduling, when she liked to linger in bed in the mornings till 9.30 or so, putting on her makeup¹⁰ in her own good time. It sometimes happened that she had to greet the public from the balcony with her nightgown tucked up under her coat. “Hi, Betty!” they would shout back.

　　当然，她也会中规中矩的合乎礼仪。从1974年8月到1977年1月，在任第一夫人期间，她总能做到举止得体。必要的场合，她甚至会带上白色手套（“那种露指手套”）。在他们弗吉尼亚州家中，墙上本悬挂着一个与房间一样长的架子上陈列的全是她的衣服，但因为太多，架子都塌了下来。她是如此喜欢衣服，但在各种公共场合装淑女却让她很不自在。她喜欢一直在床上赖到大概九点半，然后悠闲自在地化妆，所以白宫紧凑的公共行程安排也让她郁闷。有好几次，她出现在阳台上向大家问好时，正装下是还未及更换的睡衣。“嗨，贝蒂！”大家总是这样回应她的问候。

　　On Jerry's inauguration¹¹ day she kept quiet, because she had taken advice from her Living Bible that morning to “put a muzzle¹³ on your mouth”. But she made it clear that she didn't intend to change the candid¹⁴ habits of a lifetime just because she was in the White House. Jerry and she were going to keep their sleeping arrangements (not really a double bed, just twins that swung out from one headboard, but the fuss was the same), in which they would have sex “as often as possible!” The flag she had made for her limousine¹⁵ featured a pair of voluminous calico knickers on a blue satin ground, because her maiden¹⁶ name was Bloomer. On “60 Minutes” in 1975, her bouffant¹⁸ hair perfect and her warm smile ever ready, she declared that smoking marijuana was like “having a first beer” and that she wouldn't be surprised if her 18-year-old daughter Susan had an affair. Jerry said: “Honey, you just lost me 20m votes.” Her own ratings soared.

　　在杰拉尔德·福特就职时，她参照《新版圣经》的训诫，整个早晨都“保持缄默”。但即使入住白宫，她也没有改变从前的生活方式，这一点很明确。她和杰拉瑞德保持从前的作息时间（白宫没有双人床，他们的床只不过拼起来的一对小床加上一个双人床床板，不过拼床和弄进一个双人床进来一样都挺麻烦的），“只要有机会就做爱”；她为给自己的豪华轿车做了一面旗子，蓝色缎子打底，上面画着一条显眼的大号白棉布灯笼裤，只因为她自己的姓氏是布鲁姆（Bloomer：灯笼裤）.1975年做客“60分”节目，她一头膨松的美发恰到好处，脸上始终挂着笑容。直言吸大麻的感觉像“当年初尝啤酒时”一样美妙，还有，如果她18岁得女儿苏珊在谈恋爱，她也不会觉得诧异。杰拉尔德开玩笑道：“亲爱的，你刚刚让我失去了2000万张选票”，但贝蒂自己的人气却在飙升。

　　She had no preparation for the White House. When Spiro Agnew resigned the vice¹²-presidency in 1973 Jerry became Veep; when Richard Nixon resigned the next year, he was suddenly president. There was no election. She felt terrified, but ended up enjoying it. She had never known what she was in for since she had met Jerry, the big, blond, handsome football hero who walked beside her at their wedding in 1948 in awful dusty brown shoes that didn't match his suit. He had seemed such a relief after Bill, her first husband, who sold furniture and was an alcoholic¹⁹. But Jerry too had a secret vice, and that was politics.

　　她没想过能入住白宫。1973年，斯皮罗·阿格纽辞去副总统职务，杰拉尔德接替他成为美国副总统；第二年，时任美国总统的理查德·尼克松辞职，杰拉尔德升职为美国总统，这个过程，甚至都未曾经历过一场选举。这一切来得太快，让她有点恐慌，但是最终却欣然享受第一夫人的身份。有着一头金发的杰拉尔德是她心中高大帅气的足球英雄，在他们婚礼上，他穿着一双与礼服极不相称、沾满灰尘的棕色鞋子走在她身旁。她从未料到遇见杰拉尔德会有怎样的命运等待着她。她有前夫比尔是嗜酒如命的家具销售代表。遇见杰拉尔德对她而言则是一种解脱。当然，杰拉尔德也有一个不为人知的缺点，那就是太专注于政治。

　　He was elected to Congress the year they got married, and they stayed in Washington for 28 years. For more than half that time he was away from home while she raised Mike, Jack²⁰, Steve and Susan, tripping over bags of marbles and toy trucks, burying pet alligators²¹, visiting the emergency room, measuring out her life in Pablum spoons. She was a den¹⁷ mother for cub²² scouts²³ and taught Sunday School, but by 1965 she couldn't be Bionic Woman any more. A psychiatrist²⁴ told her she had to believe she was important again.

　　在他们结婚当年，杰拉尔德入选国会，他们在华盛顿待了28个年头，这期间杰拉尔德有一半时间都不在她身边，她一人将4个孩子——麦克，杰克，斯蒂芬和苏珊拉扯大：会被一大袋的弹子儿和玩具卡车绊倒；埋葬宠物短吻鳄；带着孩子看医生；在乏味的碗筷之间经营着自己的生活。她还是童子军女训导，在主日学校上课。但1956年，她再也无法扮演“无敌女金刚”的角色了，精神医生告诉她必须得开始关注自己了。

　　She went to him for almost two years, and openly admitted it later. Why not get help if you needed it? It was the same when breast cancer struck her as First Lady. She spoke³ “breast” aloud and “cancer” aloud, had a mastectomy and urged others to do the same. Why, she told the world, she could even wear her evening clothes. When she became addicted²⁶ to pills for neck pain and, over martini-filled years, started drinking too much, she publicly booked into a clinic to recover, sharing a room with three other women, and then in 1982 founded the Betty Ford Centre for addiction²⁷ in Rancho Mirage²⁸, California. There she would tell patients: “Hi, I'm Betty. I'm an addict²⁵ and an alcoholic.”

　　她看了两年的精神病医生，后来大方的承认了此事。如果有需要，为什么不接受帮助呢？她在当第一夫人期间患上了乳腺癌，把“乳腺”和“癌”说的响亮，她接受了乳房切除手术并鼓励其他病人也接受手术治疗。为什么不呢？她告诉全世界她依然可以穿着自己的晚礼服。她因颈椎病依赖药品和鸡尾酒疗法而染上酒瘾，这时她又公开预定诊所接受治疗，甚至还和其他三位女性共用一个病房。1982年，在加州的兰乔米拉市成立了贝蒂·福特中心，在这里，她会和病人们打招呼：“嗨，我叫贝蒂。曾经沉溺于药品，嗜酒成性”。

　　That secondary feeling

　　次要感

　　Her impulse to speak out shockingly and usefully extended into politics, too. Though she tried not to get in Jerry's way, she realised that First Ladies had power to make waves. She thought Roe²⁹ v Wade³⁰, which legalised abortion³¹, a great decision, and said so. She lobbied hard for a woman on the Supreme³² Court, though pillow-talk had no effect in that case. Naturally she supported the Equal Rights Amendment³³, but since Jerry opposed it she waited until 1977 to get out in front of the sisterly protests with her placard. She had spent so much of her life feeling secondary (though to a man she adored) that she burned to undo³⁴ the laws that hemmed³⁵ women in.

　　她把直率敢言、语出惊人却字字珠玑的风格也带到了政治上。尽管她试着不给杰拉尔德添麻烦，但是第一夫人还是有足够威力引起风波。她认为罗伊案促使堕胎合法化，这是个不错的决定，于是加以肯定；她为一名妇女在最高法庭上努力游说众人，虽然在那个案子中，即使吹枕边风福特也帮不上忙。当然她也支持《平等权利修正案》，但由于杰拉尔德反对这项法案，直到1977年她才得以与姐妹般得抗议者们站在一起，高举标语牌。在她一生的大部分时间中，她总感觉自己作为女性得不到重视（虽然她受到一个男人的宠爱），于是尽自己所能解除那些禁锢女性的法律。

　　She was only an ordinary woman, she liked to say. She'd worked in a department store, had an unlucky marriage, could only make scalloped potato out of a box, never got a college degree. But she was caught up in extraordinary times. And when they ended—as she blissfully contemplated³⁶ getting both life and husband back, as they packed up to leave the White House—she took just a moment to climb on the Cabinet table, so beautifully set, and dance.

　　如她所言，她只是一名普通女性：曾在百货公司工作，经历过一次不幸的婚姻，只会用烤盘做焗薯仔，更没有大学学历，但是她却赶上了特殊时期。当这一切都结束了——当她幸福的预计到生活和丈夫都能回到自己身边、打点好行李准备离开白宫时，她用一眨眼的功夫跃上精美的议会餐桌，翩然起舞。

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