This was emailed to me today. It comes from a Canadian News writer.
TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES
>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 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 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 technology, and you get radios. You talk about
>German technology, and you get automobiles. You talk about American
>technology, 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!