In light of this terrible tradgy that has affected all Americans, a suggestion has been made to show our true colors. Today as part of the solidarity of Americans, try to wear something on your clothing proudly displaying the RED, WHITE and BLUE. United we stand! Just because we're down doesn't mean we're out!

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (Trevilians@mediaone.net), September 13, 2001

Answers

Fly your flag with pride. We are still the best country in the world to be living in. We have our bad times, but we will get through this just like we have with everything else that has happened to us as a nation .

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), September 13, 2001.

Just a little something a friend e-mailed to me. Seems very appropriate to this post.

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, 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 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.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), September 13, 2001.

Bob -- I'd be interested in which Canadian paper that was from -- I'd like to get a copy. Gordon Sinclair has been dead for several years, his words are generallly well worth repeating.

I'd like to play devil's advocate here and tell you why SOME Canadians feel a sense of anger towards the American people. I'm not justifying it, because I believe that generalization is always wrong, and I've been lucky enough to meet some amazing people of American heritage. But I would like to point out the major issue as I see it as a Canadian.

I come from Ontario -- where tourism is God. The small town I come from is a cottagers mecca -- with many properties owned by absentee American owners. I worked throughout highschool and into my twenties in service industries and had a lot of exposure to these summer residents.

Many times the people who visited our "hick" town would roar into parking lots with their large, expensive vehicles, sporting New York or Michigan plates (sometimes from further states) and demand immediate service, regardless of five local people standing in line ahead of them. They were loud, brash, and pushy. I even had one woman (New York plates on the vehicle she had nosed right into the bay of the produce house I worked in) ask me if I spoke English.

Ignorance, as we have seen in these past weeks, is universal. I will freely admit that we have more than enough of it up here (Brian Mulroney comes to mind), but to many Canadians, this is the ONLY side of the American people that they get to see.

I have had my fair share of run-ins with people on Countryside who make snide comments about Canada and other nations -- I equate them with the ignorance I saw so much of while living in Ontario, but other Canadians don't have much experience with Americans outside of this. This experience, to them, is the face of the American people.

Every country needs to understand that the ambassadors it sends to other places are the travellers that the common man sees, not the government appointed officials they don't.

I hope that no one takes offence at what I've said here. I feel it's important that our two nations PEOPLE understand each other better.

-- Tracy Rimmer (trimmer31@hotmail.com), October 19, 2001.