A Collection Of Humor And Thoughts
I wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?'
Stand Proud Americans
Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian
television commentator, gave widespread but only partial news coverage
recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto. 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 the franc 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 10? 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, Americans.