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October 10, 2008
Let's Be Personal (circa 1973) by Gordon Sinclair
Canadian journalist Gordon Sinclair and his view on Americans. This speech was published on June 5, 1973.
"LET'S BE PERSONAL" Broadcast June 5, 1973 CFRB, Toronto, Ontario
Topic: "The Americans"
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the world.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Well, Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that's who.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. 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 those 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. And I was there. I saw that.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan... the Truman Policy... all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. And now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! 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 international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or a 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 the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are right here on our streets in Toronto, most of them... unless they are breaking Canadian laws... are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the bonds, let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.
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 of them are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name to 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 neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their noses at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year's disasters... with the year less than half-over... has taken it all and nobody... but nobody... has helped.
ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO
COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD.
(c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR
Wild Thing's comment...............
What's really amazing is how similar everything is today (in Canada, the U.S. and the rest of the World) as it relates to where the U.S. is and how it is viewed both inside and outside the U.S.
Deja vu all over again..
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at October 10, 2008 05:45 AM
Comments
Thanks Mark and WT. I have listened to Gordon Sinclair's speech many times over the years. It should be played on radio and television on a regular basis, but then, so should the Pledge of Allegience and other patriotic things.
This speech was especially popular in the 80's when the news media had an almost incessant attack against Ronald Reagan. His crime? Reagan was patriotic and believed in the goodness and grace of America. Sinclair's speech personified Ronald Reagan. I think Gorgdon Sinclair's speech applies to Sarah Palin today.
Posted by: TomR at October 10, 2008 09:37 AM
This is what the democrats won't admit that dispite them we are still a great country. And we are still footing the bill for every disaster around the world.
Obama says, 'we are not as good as we use to be.' Well tell me Hussein when were we ever better and what happened to cause our downfall, in your eyes. Of Course it was Bush, he is responsible for every evil in the world. That is if you listen to this, half-black, half-white Half wit.
Posted by: Mark at October 10, 2008 01:13 PM
Sigh!!! Thanks Mark and WT.
Posted by: Jack at October 10, 2008 03:04 PM
If you have difficulty understanding the current world financial situation, the following should help...
Once upon a time in a village in India , a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.
The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts.
The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ' Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.'
The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.
Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!
Welcome to WALL STREET.
Posted by: Jack at October 10, 2008 06:31 PM
Tom, thank you so much that is interesting. I never knew that about what happened when Reagan was running.
Yes lots of similarities with Reagan and Sarah.
Posted by: Wild Thing at October 10, 2008 07:54 PM
Mark, yeessss, and thank you again I loved this.
"This is what the democrats won't admit that dispite them we are still a great country.".....this is so true.
Posted by: Wild Thing at October 10, 2008 07:56 PM
Jack, good example in story form.
Posted by: Wild Thing at October 10, 2008 07:59 PM
