A Canadian editorial, they like US!

**Failure** · 09-12-2001, 05:24 PM

I got this in an email list, I thought it was rather interesting.
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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."

**Psycho Fox** · 09-12-2001, 06:11 PM

Kinda lays it on just a bit thick (and the Airbus is a non US build airplane) but yhea it is totaly right.

**Bird Boy** · 09-12-2001, 06:32 PM

yeah, I read that!! I got the same email from my dad...

Since I've met more and more canadians, I wanna go to canada....maybe I will in the future.

I never noticed nobody else didn't come to US's aid.....boy..talk about a bunch of ungrateful poop heads..

-BB

**Leaping Larry Jojo** · 09-12-2001, 06:41 PM

Not much subtlety to the article, but pretty much says the same thing everyone else in Canada has been saying.

Canada is a good place to live. It's mostly laid back and liberal--you just have to forgive the rather high prices and tax. And Toronto probably has the highest multicultural population in the world alongside New York.

**Maxie Zeus** · 09-12-2001, 06:42 PM

Originally posted by Bird_Boy
I never noticed nobody else didn't come to US's aid.....boy..talk about a bunch of ungrateful poop heads..

-BB

Well, we don't really need anyone else's help. That's not a boast, just a fact. Being as big and rich as we are, we can afford to take care of ourselves while trying to help out others.

Still, it's awfully nice of this guy to have mentioned the point, even if it was a bit overdone and mistaken in some of the details.

happyheathen · 09-12-2001, 07:22 PM

to recognize this as a re-write of a piece called 'The Americans' written and recorded/released (yes, as a spoken-word thing) by a Canadian circa 1970 (then re. Viet Nam).

'all my life's a circle...'

d

**Maxie Zeus** · 09-12-2001, 07:40 PM

Originally posted by happyheathen
to recognize this as a re-write of a piece called 'The Americans' written and recorded/released (yes, as a spoken-word thing) by a Canadian circa 1970 (then re. Viet Nam).

Really? That would explain some of the more anachronistic bits--Airbus being left out, and the Japanese being known for their . . . "radios"?

But even off-the-shelf support is nice at a time like this.

happyheathen · 09-12-2001, 08:13 PM

Originally posted by Maxie Zeus

Really? That would explain some of the more anachronistic bits--Airbus being left out, and the Japanese being known for their . . . "radios"?

But even off-the-shelf support is nice at a time like this.

Yep -

right down to the 'except Russia' - in 1970, using 'Russia' vs. 'Soviet Union' was big with the right-wing...

and, yes, this was before the Concorde (Boeing planned a 7007 (not a typo) SST, but the fed's wouldn't subsidize it)

**DR. BELCH** · 09-13-2001, 01:04 PM

...it's very jingoist, and a tad on the glurgey side. I expect to see it at Snopes in days, if it isn't already there. Not the worst I've seen glurgewise, mind you...not the best, either. At least they didn't yammer on about God every other sentence, or have a dying man deliver a ten-paragraph sermon with his last breath....