[the_blue_tuna]

I recieved this in my e-mail and felt it was worth sharing.......


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!

[Reef Engineer]

Although Gordon Sinclair wrote that back in 1973 when the US wasn't doing so hot at the end of the Vietnam War, it's just as fitting today.

Randy