[MR] OT -- Support for America

[Robert Busek]

Just got this message from someone in my office.  I hope it serves as a reminder that though our nation has made some mistakes, it is not the monster that some countries paint it to be.  With the massive support we're getting from the international community during this crisis, maybe the rest of the world is starting to realize it too.

I know this is way off-topic, but this Canadian editorial made me think about our country in a different way.  Always a good thing, don't you think?

Pro Deo et Atlantia et America,
Robert of Canterbury

********     
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 
he 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! 
 



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