: Unnoticed? Yeah, you are right. That's why I said that
: for Americans doesn't matter how many childres die in
: poor countries, they only think about themselves.
: Right? Yes, it's right.
I am completley sick and tired of hearing this kind of crap. The United States does more for the world than any other nation on the planet. Someone else has already spoken of this better than I ever could, so I will quote him:
"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. I was there. I saw it.
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. 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 107? 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 women 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 everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Maand 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 Israel 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 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 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."
The man that spole these words was Gordon Sinclair, a CANADIAN reporter. He said them during a radio editoral in 1973, right about the time the United States was beginning its withdrawl from Vietnam.
Americans only think for themselves? Hardly. True, our actions don't always turn out to be the right ones -- we make mistakes sometimes. But damnit, at least we try SOMETHING! I'm sure the U.S. could get along perfectly fine by just sitting on our hands and watching the world change around us like so many others tend to do. It sure would save us a lot of resources and human lives, but then we wouldn't be the great nation that we are. So please, before you go off and accuse Americans of only thinking of themselves, ask yourself what your country has done lately to help out the world.
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Mauglir
