posted on September 12, 2001 04:47:02 PM new
TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES
This, from a Canadian newspaper in 1973, is worth sharing.
America: The Good Neighbor.
Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial
broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television Commentator. What
follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
quote:
This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most
generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of
the debris of war by the
Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.
None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining
debts to the United States. When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956,
it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted
and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to
help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes.
Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of
dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are
writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of
the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the
world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or
the Douglas DC10?
If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except
Russia fly American Planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider
putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy,
and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get
automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the
moon - not once, but several times - and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store
window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued
and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they
are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at
home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through
age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad
and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose.
Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other
people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced
to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during
the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired
of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their
flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the
lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one
of those.
posted on September 12, 2001 05:03:27 PM new
Thank you for posting this. Sometimes we forget how great our country is. I feel we will get through this attack, just like we got through Pearl Harbor.
I am filled with sadness. I keep fighting tears back. But, I remember how lucky I am that I still have my husband and children. Be thankfull for blessings. My heart breaks for all the victims of this attack and their families.
