9.11事件已过16年,纽约人仍生活在时刻警惕之中

导读:2001年在美国世界贸易中心和国防部五角大楼发生的“911”事件,过去了16年,却在人们心中留下了深深的阴影。

9.11事件已过16年,纽约人仍生活在时刻警惕之中_最新英语新闻

It’s a typical late summer weekend in New York’s Times Square, and tourists from around the world are snapping pictures beneath the commercial hub’s iconic neon billboards - watched closely by a heavy contingent of police.

又是一个纽约时代广场典型的夏末周末,来自世界各地的游客正在商业中心标志性的霓虹灯广告牌下拍照—但还是在一群警察的严密监视下。

Four cruisers are parked in the middle of the busy intersection, and pedestrian zones have been surrounded by barriers to stop cars from ramming the crowd, a mode of attack favored by violent extremists in recent years.

四艘巡逻警车停在繁忙的十字路口中央,行人区也设置了障碍,防止汽车撞向人群,这是近年来暴力极端分子所青睐的一种攻击方式。

I don’t like to come to places like this, says Sue Garcia, a massage therapist from Brooklyn. "Or anywhere where incidents have happened repeatedly - the fear comes to mind."

“我不喜欢来到这样的地方,”来自布鲁克林的按摩师苏.加西亚说。“或者说经常发生恐怖事件的地方—只要在这,我就时刻充满着恐惧感。”

Fear of an attack. Fear of another 9/11, the deadliest terrorist assault in history, when almost 3,000 lives were extinguished, many in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

恐惧来源于这里曾经发生的恐怖袭击。9.11恐怖袭击是历史上最严重的恐怖袭击事件,当时近3000人丧生,许多人被埋没在了世贸中心的废墟之中。

For New Yorkers who lost loved ones, narrowly survived or just witnessed the event, memories remain fresh and old wounds are re-opened on its anniversary. And a perpetual state of high alert is the new normal.

对于那些失去亲人的纽约人来说,无论那些幸存者或是事件目击者,往事仍然历历在目,旧伤疤也会在每年的周年纪念日上被重新揭开,时刻高度警惕已经成为这个城市的常态。

Garcia, now 33, was a high schooler when the planes slammed into the Twin Towers. She saw them burn then collapse, and walked all the way home like hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers that day after metro services were suspended.

现年33岁的加西亚当时是一名高中生,那天地铁停运后,她像成千上万的纽约人一样步行回家,亲眼目睹了飞机撞上双子塔的过程。

I was there, I saw it over and over again, I don’t need to think about it, she says.

“我当时就站在那里,一次又一次的看飞机撞向世贸大楼,我现在不想再去回想那些可怕的事,”她说。

But her mind always drifts toward the horrors of that day, whenever it is mentioned on TV, or even "when I hear an airplane: it is like the trigger to the thought. It has subsided over the years but it is still there" she adds.

但后来她一直被那天的恐惧所困扰,“每当电视上提到那次事件,甚至是当我听到飞机的声音,思绪就不受控制的回到那时。这几年这种感觉已经渐渐消失了,但它仍然深深的影响着我。”

Twice in recent years, catastrophe loomed. In May 2010, police discovered a car packed with explosives and primed for carnage.

最近几年这里发生了两次重大事件。2010年5月,警方发现一辆装满炸药的汽车意图在此制造屠杀事件。

In May, a mentally-ill ex-soldier deliberately drove his sedan into 23 pedestrians, killed a young American tourist.

今年5月,一名精神疾病的退役军人故意驾驶汽车撞向23名行人,并杀死一名年轻的美国游客。

The episodes of anxiety described by Garcia are a burden borne by many New Yorkers.

加西亚描述的恐怖事件无疑是许多其他纽约人每天必须承受的负担。

For those directly affected, the anniversary of the attacks are the "most dreaded date" of the year and post-traumatic stress can remain for an individual’s entire life, says Charles Strozier, a psychoanalyst and author of a book that documents the experiences of survivors and witnesses.

对那些直接受到影响的人来说,9.11周年纪念日是一年中“最可怕的日子”,精神上的创伤可能一辈子也愈合不了,精神分析学家查尔斯.斯特拉齐尔说,他也是一部关于记录幸存者和目击者经历的书的作者。

Many are also convinced that, even though recent terror attacks have focused on Europe, it is New York, the beating heart of the Western world, that remains the prime target.

许多人仍然相信,尽管最近发生的恐怖袭击主要集中在欧洲,但纽约仍是主要目标,这因为这里是西方世界的心脏。

What better target, unfortunately, than NYC? asks Tim Lambert, an IT consultant.

“不幸的是,还有比纽约更好的目标吗?”IT顾问蒂姆.兰伯特问道。

Then, as now, he worked on the southern tip of Manhattan near the WTC site. The city, he says, is a "magnet for people from all over the world... It symbolizes the freedoms that we have, the money that we have. What better way to make a statement?"

然后,一切如旧,他在靠近世贸中心遗址的曼哈顿南部工作。他说,这座城市“吸引着来自世界各地的人……,它象征着我们拥有的自由,我们拥有的金钱。还需要其他更好的说法去证明么?”

The 52-year-old says a heavier police presence is now a fact of life that people have come to expect.

现年52岁的他说,人们期望的就是警察人数再增加一些。

I am not comfortable with it, but it is the new norm. The world is changing and the terrorist threat is part of that change, he adds.

“我觉得不舒服,但这就是新规则。世界正在改变,而恐怖主义威胁也是世界变化的一部分。”

To protect its 8.5 million inhabitants, New York has to remain fully prepared.

为了保护它的850万居民,纽约必须随时做好充分的准备。

(来源:爱语吧)

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