reflection ...

[Ted de Castro <tdc@XRAYTED.COM>]

I hesitate to post this here as it may seem chauvinistic AND I've been

told it is quite dated.  Never the less I think it is warranted at a

time like this.  I found it settling:



TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

  

  This, from a Canadian newspaper, it's 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:

  America: The Good Neighbor.

  

  "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, war mongering 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! Wear it proudly!!

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