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."
Stand proud, America!
This is one of the best editorials that
I have ever read regarding
the
United States. It is nice that one man
realizes it. I only wish that
the rest of the world would realize it.
We are always blamed for
everything, and never even get a thank
you for the things we do.
I would hope that each of you would send
this to as many people as
you
can and emphasize that they should send
it to as many of their
friends
until this letter is sent to every person
on the web. I am just a
single American that has read this.
