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:

A TRIBUTE TO THE  UNITED STATES

"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!

This page was last edited:  01 April 2002