[NHCOLL-L:1198] FW: Why?

[James Kruse]

on 9/12/01 3:36 PM, Vr. Richard Bejsak-Colloredo-Mansfeld at
ricardo at ANS.COM.AU wrote:

> Do you know what was the reason for the attack on America?
(Random, baseless accusations snipped)


Here is why. I am forwarding an editorial broadcast from Toronto over a year
ago by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator that should sum a
few things up for you. What follows is the full text of his trenchant
remarks as printed in the Congressional Record and is appropriate in the
face of this disaster:

> "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!

I won't be down-trodden by you or anyone else.

James J. Kruse, Ph.D.
Curator of Entomology
University of Alaska Museum
907 Yukon Drive
Fairbanks, AK, USA 99775-6960
tel 907.474.5579
fax 907.474.1987
http://www.uaf.edu/museum/ento