America: The Good Neighbor

[RickBowman]

This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth sharing.

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!

[Freesail99]

I have gotten this as an email more then a few times over the past 10 years. We do have competition in plane building now, BTW.

[flyingwelshman]

While I think that the article may have been valid in its time, it does a great disservice to the countries that are, today, coming to the aid of people around the world; that are making huge advancements in many technologies; and are otherwise doing many of the things that Mr. Sinclair claimed they are not.

[Valiente]

Recorded in 1973, actually. I remember hearing it at the age of 12.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Sinclair

The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)

On June 5, 1973, following news that the American Red Cross had run out of money as a result of aid efforts for recent natural disasters, Sinclair recorded what would become his most famous radio editorial, "The Americans." While paying tribute to American success, ingenuity, and generosity to people in need abroad, Sinclair decried that when America faced crisis itself, it often seemed to face that crisis alone.

At the time, Sinclair considered the piece to be nothing more than one of his usual items. But when U.S. News & World Report published a full transcript, the magazine was flooded with requests for copies.[18] Radio station WWDC-AM in Washington, D.C. started playing a recording of Sinclair's commentary with Bridge Over Troubled Water playing in the background. Sinclair told the Star in November 1973 that he had received 8,000 letters about his commentary.

With the strong response generated by the editorial, a recording of Sinclair's commentary was sold as a single with all profits going to the American Red Cross. "The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)" went to #24 on the Billboard Hot 100, making the 73-year-old Sinclair the oldest living person ever to have a Billboard U.S. Top 40 hit.

A transcript of the commentary was also recorded by Byron MacGregor, news director of Windsor, Ontario radio station CKLW (AM), and it became an even bigger hit in the U.S., climbing to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sinclair was said to be annoyed by MacGregor's recording, which was released as a single before Sinclair's authorized version.[19] At the time, CKLW was owned by Toronto media baron John Bassett. In Canada, Sinclair's version peaked at #30, topping McGregor's, which missed the top 40, stalling at #42.

In May 1974, Sinclair told The Globe and Mail that he was "sick of hearing" the recording and embarrassed by some of the inaccuracies it contained,[20] but that he would still write the same editorial over again.

In 1981, when Ronald Reagan made his first state visit to Canada, he praised Sinclair as a figure who had given the United States a wonderful and inspiring tribute in one of its darkest hours.

The Americans was widely revived on the Internet, radio and newspapers in 2001, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and again in 2005 in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Some revivals of the message incorrectly state that it was newly written as a direct response to recent crises; in this question of its authorship alone, the address has become a part of urban legend.

[sailaway21]

A short history of the decline of US power and influence.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...declinism.html

[Plumper]

Times have changed haven't they.........

[sailaway21]

According to the essay by Mr. Dowd posted above, times have not changed too much at all, at least regarding the absence of American decline. The news of America's decline, like that of Mark Twain's death, seems to be vastly exagerrated.

[RAGNAR]

zzz