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  • From: "Marcella Carby-Samuels" <m.carby AT duke.edu>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Canadian Editorial - timeless
  • Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 14:24:14 -0400




While not recent, the Canadian editorial that is making the rounds on lists
all over the Internet still rings true as a timeless tribute to a brave
country, and a good neighbor.

The Globe and Mail, arguably Canada's largest newspaper, recently published
an article commenting on the resurfacing of Gordon Sinclair's tribute to
America.

Feel free to read it below, or link to it at:

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/C/20010913/wcanbroad?hub=homeBN&tf=tgam/realtime/fullstory.html&cf=tgam/realtime/config-neutral&vg=BigAdVariableGenerator&slug=wcanbroad&date=20010913&archive=RTGAM&site=Front&ad_page_name=breakingnews

I am amazed that his writings seem to be timeless, and point to how much
work is still left to be done in the world a full 30 years after it was
first broadcasted live on CFRB 1010 AM radio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Strong words for a sad time indeed.

Marcella

===============================================

** Historic Canadian broadcast resurfaces **

Reuters News Agency


Words of praise for the United States spoken more than 30 years ago by a
Canadian broadcaster flew around the Internet Thursday, fooling but
providing comfort for the many who thought it was penned in response to
Tuesday's tragic attacks by hijacked airliners.
An electronic version of The Americans, which was originally broadcast by
the late Gordon Sinclair, was e-mailed under the guise of a recent
editorial - despite the fact Mr. Sinclair died in 1984 and wrote the script
in 1973 at the end of the Vietnam War.
"Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a
remarkable editorial broadcast... by Gordon Sinclair," the E-mail said in
its introduction to the script.
In the script, Mr. Sinclair praised the United States, calling it "the most
generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth."
Many Americans applauded Mr. Sinclair on Web sites that carried his
message.
"My thanks to Gordon Sinclair for his powerful and thought provoking words.
For me, and I hope for you, his words bring back a little of the pride we
used to have in being an American," one person wrote on a U.S. Web site.
"What a refreshing article. Thank you... Gordon Sinclair," another E-mail
respondent said.
Mr. Sinclair said: "I can name 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? ... 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."
Canadian broadcast-journalist Betty Kennedy, who was a friend of Mr.
Sinclair's, said he wrote the radio speech in response to reports that the
American Red Cross was on the verge of bankruptcy.
"He was so incensed by this," Ms. Kennedy said. He wrote the speech in five
minutes and immediately read it over the radio.
"The response from it was absolutely unbelievable," she recalled. "The
thing absolutely snowballed."
Ms. Kennedy said she believed the transcript resurfaced, which won wide
play in the United States at the time, because it spoke well of the
American people.
"It was so warm-hearted... At a time of terrible trouble...they probably
need to remember that."





"Shea

Tisdale" To: "InterNetWorkers"
<internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
<shea@sheatis cc:

dale.com> Subject: [internetworkers] Re:
Canadian Editorial


09/14/2001

01:41 PM

Please

respond to

"InterNetWork

ers"









This is a great Editorial, but it isn't recent.

> Claim: Canadian radio commentator Gordon Sinclair delivered a stirring,
> pro-American editorial.
> Status: True.
> Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1999]
> Good reading, from a Toronto newspaper's editorial page!
> 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
> 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 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 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 Tristar, or the Douglas
> 10? 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 American 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 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 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.


> Origins: On June 5 1973, Canadian radio commentator Gordon Sinclair
decided
> he'd had enough of the stream of criticism and negative press recently
> directed at the United States of America by foreign journalists
(primarily
> over America's long military involvement in Vietnam, which had ended with
> the signing of the Paris Peace Accords six months earlier). When he
arrived
> at radio station CFRB in Toronto that morning, he spent twenty minutes
> dashing off a two-page editorial defending the USA against its carping
> critics which he then delivered in a defiant, indignant tone during his
> "Let's Be Personal" spot at 11:45 AM that day.
> The unusualness of any foreign correspondent -- even one from a country
with
> such close ties to the USA as Canada -- delivering such a caustic
commentary
> about those who would dare to criticize the USA is best demonstrated by
the
> fact that even thirty years later, many Americans doubt that this piece
> (which has been circulating on the Internet in the slightly-altered form
> quoted above as something "recently" printed in a Toronto newspaper) is
> real. It is real, and it received a great deal of attention in its day.
> After Sinclair's editorial was rebroadcast by a few American radio
stations,
> it spread like wildfire all over the country. It was played again and
again
> (often superimposed over a piece of inspirational music such as "Battle
Hymn
> of the Republic" or "Bridge Over Troubled Waters"), read into the
Congress
> Record multiple times, and finally released on a record (titled "The
> Americans"), with all royalties donated to the American Red Cross. (A
> Detroit radio broadcaster named Byron MacGregor recorded and released an
> unauthorized version of the piece that hit the record stores before
> Sinclair's official version; an infringement suit was avoided when
MacGregor
> agreed to donate his profits to the Red Cross as well).
> Sinclair passed away in 1984, but he will long be remembered on both
sides
> of the U.S.-Canadian border -- both for his contributions to journalism,
and
> for his loudly proclaiming what no one else at the time would stand up
and
> say.



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  • Re: Canadian Editorial - timeless, Marcella Carby-Samuels, 09/14/2001

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