[Leica] Sinclair article (was For You George)

[Mark Langer <mlanger@ccs.carleton.ca>]

Jim,

You should know that this article, now being widely reprinted, is almost
30 years old, and was written in 1973 by a well-known crank and eccentric who
has been dead for some years. It hardly applies to the situation today.  I
won't go through the long list of aid that the U.S. had received from other
countries in the recent past (like American victims in Somalia being
treated in German hospitals, the Canadian and Swiss help to the U.S.
Embassy officials in Iran, the Israeli medical and body recovery teams at
the African embassy bombings, etc, etc) but almost every country in the
world has offered aid to the U.S. in this most recent catastrophe.  Even
Castro has offered to send a field hospital.  Why this article is being
widely reprinted in U.S. papers now is something completely beyond my
understanding.

This 30 year old article ends by voicing the hope that Canada is not among the
"ingrate" nations.  We've just taken in, fed and housed 37,000 passengers,
mostly American, from flights headed to the U.S.  Canadian jets
intercepted and forced down two passenger jets en route to the
U.S. suspected of being highjacked.  75,000 Canadians donated blood for the
victims of the bombing.  Donations are pouring in to the U.S.from Canada,
and hospital beds were vacated, operations postponed, etc. to make room for
possible American victims.  Thousands of people were weeping outside the
U.S. Embassy in Washington, and the sidewalks around it are impassible
because of the flowers left by grieving Canadians.  Our Prime Minister went on
the air to say that the attack in N.Y. and Washington is considered by the
Govt. of Canada to be an attack on Canada itself, and we will react
accordingly.  He has been in communication with Bush, and formal offers
of aid have been made.  The RCMP is combing the Atlantic Provinces
following up leads that two suspects may have entered the U.S. from
there.  And, as far as loss of Canadian life, it is estimated that 60 to
100 Canadians died in the World Trade Center disaster.  So please don't
continue to post your whinings about how the world in general, and Canada
in particular, isn't coming to the aid of the U.S.  We may not expect your
thanks, but we sure as hell don't expect this kind of contemptuous
reprinting of the 30 year-old ravings of some nut as a description of
today's situation.

Mark  

> Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 20:44:14 -0400
> From: Jim Hemenway <jim@hemenway.com>
> Subject: [Leica] For you George
> Message-ID: <3BA0015E.8502C943@hemenway.com>
> References: <200109122307.TAA03962@newman.concentric.net>
> 
> This, from a Canadian newspaper, no less, is
> worth sharing.
> 
> 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."
> 
> Stand proud, America!
> 


Mark Langer

Email address: mlanger@ccs.carleton.ca
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