----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2000 5:30
PM
Subject: Non-PD Canadian news
article
This was sent to me by a friend,I am posting iton the
listserv because we have many Canadians on the list.
BUTE TO THE UNITED STATES
This is from a Canadian
newspaper, it's worth sharing.
America: The Good
Neighbor.
Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently
to a
remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto, Canada 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 the franc 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 10? 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, Americans
Lanier
Maddux Chattanooga Tn