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God Bless America : TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

God Bless America : TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

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.


Maybe each of you can send this to at least one person and they might send
it to one of their friends until this letter is sent to every person on the
web. I am just a single American that has read this,


--- Ken Byrnes





8,496 views 30 replies
Reply #26 Top
I meant to say...
It is really something to see how "At a time like this"
strangers will pull together, and others that have known each other for awhile will suddenly attack each other...

guess even my fingers are disgusted...
Reply #27 Top
It seems Jafo had a point when he said this was not the place to be discussing politics.
Reply #28 Top
To you or others it may be simply idle arbitrary discussions.

In the United States, it's in our faces. Nothing got done at Stardock this week. This isn't some sort of "interesting philosophical" discusison to us. It's something that is affecting us personally and deeply.
Reply #29 Top
Yeah, my timing and tact were a bit off [understatement]. I'll refrain from commenting on this subject from now on, so I won't mess up anymore.
Reply #30 Top
Brad,.....one of the 'unfortunate' effects of America's importance to, and domination of world affairs is that Her significance within the world community has meant that irrespective of the nationalities of those killed and injured the outcome has rocked the entire world, not just those living in the US.
Americans do not have a monopoly on the grief, outrage and despair that this has caused.
It is not sufficient, nor appropriate to treat this as an 'attack on America'...it is an attack on all like-minded individuals on this planet, and significantly more of them are actually 'not' American at all.
US influence over the rest of the 'free-world' is such that many of the children of other countries know more about US culture than their own....whether it is Japanese Punk rockers or Chinese Elvis Impersonators.....these events go way, way beyond National boundaries.

As I have said before, the short-comings of typed, anonymous, non-immediate Web-site Forum communication is not really the best place for discussions of such deep meaning and import.
But maybe to put things very simply....me being a slow typist and all.....
You die,
We all cry.