Just some thoughts about life experiences
Here is something I found interesting, i have heard it on the radio before, but just came across it on the internet....



Many Americans have heard about an editorial written by Canadian television commentator, Gordon Sinclair. His now famous words have been circulating the globe...

Gordon Sinclair's editorial broadcast from Toronto as printed in the Congressional Record:

This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as 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 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 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 Tristar, 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 American 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 5,000 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.


..."No one... could have envisioned the reaction of the people of the United States - from presidents - state governors - Congress - the Senate - all media including TV, radio, newspapers, magazines - and from the "ordinary" American on the street. Nor could have the Canadian government - stunned by the response to what has come to be regarded as one of Canada's greatest public relations feats in the history of our relations with the United States of America.

Comments
on Jun 14, 2004
To put this in some context, Gordon Sinclair has been dead for more than 20 years, and this editorial was broadcast while Nixon was still president.
on Jun 14, 2004
Cwth, do you feel then that it is no longer an accurate representation?
on Jun 14, 2004
well, i know it is old....like i said, I have heard it on the radio, and came across it on the internet....but like Smartaz asks, is this no longer relevant?

I wonder if in the world today, if there is not at least one Canadian that feels this way? After all, the U.S. is still sending support all over the world to help ppl that hate us. And, like the quote says, America is in a rut at the moment, with nations hating us, but you know what? When these things turn around, the U.S. will be standing tall and strong.

That is my belief anyways.
on Jun 14, 2004
Not sure how to put this. To the extent that it presents other countries and cultures in a negative light, it doesn't sit well with me and never has.

To the extent that he was presenting his view of the American character, yes I believe it is still accurate in the sense that it does a good job of representing the core of what I admire about America and Americans. It's no longer, unfortunately, the only America I see. There's a sort of mean-spirited egotism, or maybe chauvinism is a better word, that I've been noticing more and more over the past 10 years or so and it's become much more apparent in the face America has shown to the world in the past three years. I can't help thinking that if this were written today it would read more like an apologia and less like an encomium.