What’s up with anti-Americanism? Anti-Americanism has been on the rise for the past couple of years. No surprise there. It’s been on the rise for quite awhile. Longer than I’ve been alive.

Fred Paul wrote a great post reminding us that things aren’t so very different from a few decades back. We swing this way and that way and the sun goes in and the sun goes behind a cloud. But the sun is still there even when it’s hidden, and so are we:

Gordon Sinclair broadcast his famous “The Americans” in Toronto 1973.

I’m a Canadian. And I’ve lived in the United States for 30 years. I’ve served in the Canadian Armed Forces and worked alongside Americans for North America’s defence. I even married an American.

If you know me, you will know that I am not a terrific fan of American politics nor their common knowledge on history….. but for crying out loud… The United States of America accumulatively has done tremendous deeds to safeguard democracy and freedom. At the very least, the top 5.

Yes, she has made mistakes and she continues to make mistakes. What country doesn’t? I can tick countries off on my fingers and toes that have done worse in human atrocities alone…. far worse. Don’t you think that maybe instead of rubbing America’s nose into “it”, other countries should instead foster some way to encourage a change in policy? Or are they more concerned in the almighty American buck going their way?

No…. taking pleasure in putting down a country is not an option. It’s a disgrace. There are a lot of Americans who do want to change the country. The majority for crying out loud (repetitious but warranted). And this is not the way to help them.

Here’s the stupid answer in a nutshell. Americans are traditionally Isolationists. All they want to do is to go on with their lives and have a good life. They do not take kindly in government intervention when not warranted. They don’t like anything outside to threaten their security. And they like to toot their horn.

There was another Canadian who was ticked off with this attitude that the rest of the world has. Gordon Sinclair. I’m going to paste his response to this deplorable attitude the rest of the world has developed towards America. If you like, you can listen to the audio in the link.

Gordon Sinclair’s speech:

The Americans Radio Broadcast Original 1973

“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’s time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous, and possibly the least-appreciated, people in all the world.

As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Well who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that’s who.

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. And I was there — I saw that. When distant cities are hit by earthquake, it’s the United States that hurries in to help. Managua, Nicaragua, is one of the most recent examples.

So far this spring, fifty-nine 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. And now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war-mongering Americans.

Now, I’d like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes. Come on now, you, let’s hear it. Does any 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 a 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 the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They’re right here on our streets in Toronto. Most of them, unless they’re breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend up 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 somebody else buy the bonds. Let somebody else build or repair foreign dams, or design foreign buildings that won’t shake apart in earthquakes.” When the railways of France and 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 of ’em 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 to 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 kicked around. They’ll come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they’re entitled to thumb their noses 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.”

Gordon’s royalties on this speech got the American Red Cross out of the red.

PS…. The UK didn’t pay off its war debt to the US until 2006. An exception. Britain pays 1945 war debt This broadcast was 1973.

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