Klarinet Archive - Posting 000443.txt from 2001/09

From: Gary Truesdail <gir@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Barbarian Terrorists
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 01:47:35 -0400

Mark and others:

1. Sent to me by a fellow musician:

TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

>
This, from a Canadian newspaper, 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, war mongering 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!

This is one of the best editorials that I have ever read regarding the
United States. It is nice that one man realizes it. I only wish that the
rest of the world would realize it. We are always blamed for everything,
and never even get a thank you for the things we do.

I would hope that each of you would send this to as many people as you
can and emphasize that they should send it to as many of their friends
until this letter is sent to every person on the web. I am just a single
American that has read this, I SURE HOPE THAT A LOT MORE READ IT SOON.
>

2. A friend said "We should focus our national resources and coffers to
rebuild the Trade Center as fast as possible as a way of thumbing our
noses.

3. My statement:

Some of you miss an important point here. Try to imagine you are the
original pilot of one of those airplanes just before the hijacking began
and your cabin door provided you with some degree of safety, at least a
few minutes delay, and not knowing what the final outcome was to be,
would you, the person responsible for the safety of all on your plane,
be willing to sacrifice the lives of all persons aboard by crashing the
plane into the ground in order to stop the hijacking? Probably not.
You would most likely execute plan A or B or C or whatever else you have
trained for. But, (isn't hindsight wonderful) now that you know the
consequences of not sacrificing 200+ lives when you had a chance
thousands of lives may be lost. If only they knew. Now rethink your
statement 'At any cost?' to see if it gives you a different view. At
the moment of decision one does not know which way the scale tilts
regarding the cost and it's unknown benefits. It takes 'mucho grande
gonados' to make what could be a wrong or at least unpopular/bad for
business/possibly 'wish you hadn't done it" decision of this nature.
Had the pilots known I'm sure they would have taken a different path of
action. Is it possible, i'm hoping, that is why one of the planes did
crash? Anyone know?

Glad some of our friends are safe. Good luck to all in dealing with
this. It is war, but with a new face. May we be right in our decisions
swift in our actions and leave a big footprint. May your left hand carry
a big stick and the right hand offer love and help to those that need
it.

Gary

Mark Charette wrote:
>
>
> Do I hope the terrorists, whoever they may be, get caught and punished - you
> bet. At any cost? - no.
>
>

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