232 years ago today, a bunch of guys in Philadelphia made one of the riskiest decisions of any startup in history. Thumbing their noses at the world's dominant power, these guys said "There has to be something better"; upon signing the Declaration of Independence their very lives were at stake and many paid a deep personal price in the years to come. Today is a celebration of the Founders of this country and the gift of liberty they gave a then struggling group of colonies.
Today with oil at $144/barrel, the housing market in utter disarray, the dollar getting pounded on the exchange markets, a sluggish economy, a war against terrorism, and a presidential election in which both candidates seem more concerned with how much money the Federal government can spend and regulations it can impose instead of protecting the liberties of Americans, America is going through a rough patch. To some, it appears our best days are behind us.
Don't count me in that group.
We've been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt.
From a commentary by Gordon Sinclair that aired June 5, 1973 on CFRB in Toronto, Ontario Canada :
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 earth.As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
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. 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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.
Have a happy 4th of July.
Hi,
I just happened to randomly come across your site and this article while surfing.
As a non-American and an outsider, I can empathize with what you're saying and feeling.
In fact, I grew up on a steady diet of American Culture. So much so that I'm more American than most of my friends. (I'm Asian by the way) I love America, and it's ways. I loved how they were always the first in almost anything worth mentioning, and they take pride in what they do.
And during these times, the rest of the world looked up to the Great USA too.
But over the recent years, sadly, there has been a huge shift in sentiment towards America.
With the unnecessary wars in the Middle East, and a handful of American Oligarches ruining what was America's great reputation for Progress, Liberty, Freedom and Fairness.
Its sad that America is now viewed as the bane of the world, (it's still better than the Muslim extremists who seem to have declared war on the whole freakinnn' world for no good reason) and the main cause for the global crashing economy.
But in response to your article, one thing is glaringly clear. America has rushed to the aid of many nations in time of crisis countless times. But it's not that the rest of the world doesn't want to help when America needs it, it's mainly the fact that America hardly, if not never, asks for help. It's gotten too proud, America tells the world, it never makes mistakes and even if it does, it can fix itself.
I really do hope that America does make a comeback. We still think America is a wonderful country, with wonderful principles. Now it's just up to the people to purge itself of the unwanted ones that are giving it a bad name...
Posted by: Ad Wad | February 08, 2009 at 05:26 AM