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This, from a Canadian newspaper, 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:
"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."
Stand proud, America!
This is one of the best editorials that I have ever read
regarding the United States. It is nice that one man
realizes it. I only
wish that the rest of the world would realize it. We are
always blamed for
everything, and never even get a thank you for the things we
do.