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HIGH FLIGHT
By
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds--and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the widswept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space.
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God... |
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A remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television comentator made in 1997. 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 Amerifcans 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 Amnericans 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 distant cities are hit by earthquakes, 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 theTruman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decandent, warmongering Americans. Id like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the US dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar, or the Douglas 10 ? If so, why dont they fly them ? Why does no other land on earth consider putting a man or woman on the moon ? You talk about Japanese technology, and you get radios. You talk about American technology, 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 American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here. When the railways of France, Germany, and India were breaking down the Pennsylvania railroad and the New Yourk Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the aid of other people in trouble. Can you name me even ONE time when outside help even during the San Frqancisco earthquake. Our neighbors have faced it all alone, and Im one Canadian who is tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this 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 them. |
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