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."
Hehe...just thought I'd post it again...like we all haven't read it 30 times. [}:D]