Posted on 08/30/2005 6:07:57 AM PDT by Quilla
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 Yangtse. 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 Misssissippi 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 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 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 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. 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.
Thanks! I enjoyed it.
I remember when this came out. Nobody helped then and nobody will help now.
Oh my, I misspelled Mr. Sinclair's name. My apologies.
Even though some of the references are dated (International lines are flying the Airbus now, Japanese technocracy is cars and cell phones, etc.) I still think about the fact that without our dollars pumping in at crucial times, none of these things would have happened.
On another thread I suggested that we pull our foreign aid from any country that is shouting "Death to America" and pump it into rebuilding our own shores.
Gee,were is all the help from those Muslim charities...doesn't the great "religion of peace" have some precept about helping thse in need???? </sarcasm
Spend money on Americans not enemies.
Too bad the article is too old to mention the scolding the US got after the tsunami for 'not sending enough money.'
I wont be holding my breath waiting for all that foreign aid to come pouring in. Enough is enough. This country just sent the Palestinians a check---the PALESTINIANS for keerists sake. Where is the UN now the SONs of Beaches.
I think it's time for a new one. I'm not holding my breath for it to come from Canada this time, though.
Thanks, eh!
I can't wait for peace Islam to come a helping.
I like the way India responded to offers for help after the tsunami. They stood up and said, essentially, "thank you, but we can handle this by ourselves." I thought that took some guts, but it showed how determined they are to take their place in the modern world as an economic power.
We are fully capable of doing the same, of course, but it would be nice to have some offers to politely refuse.
Exactly!
Very timely indeed. Our $$$ pour out to countries for aid in times of disasters and peril, but seldom does even condolences come back when we (USA) are battered and bruised. Anything that does is nothing more than fat crocodile tears that are a veneer over a craven weasel-like soul, rubbing its hands together and licking its chops thinking, "Good, bad-old America got what's coming to it!"
I don't think the America haters have the slightest clue how much worse the world would be if the USA disappeared from the face of the earth.
You're right - it's very timely to re-run Mr. Sinclair's writing again!
I agree 100 %.
That's why "Atlas Shrugged" remains one of my favorite books. "If you hate us so much, fine, see how you get along without us."
No worries. Somethings are as relevant today as it was when it originated. This is one of those times. Thanks for the posting.
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