I thought I should share this with the list.
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:
____________________
America: The Good Neighbor.
"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.
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!"
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