Thread: What is great about USA?

CAN'T FIND THE THANKS BUTTON ON YOUR POST STDREB27. SO THANKS I READ THIS POST TO MY WIFE AND AS I WAS READING IT I'M NOT AFRAID TO SAY IT CHOKED ME UP A LITTLE. THANKS

Canada is on the american continent, does that make me american ??

Anyways, I visit your beutiful country every year. I don't know much about the everyday details of how you live, but I can tell you the 1 thing that hits me everytime I visit the USA.

The people. Everytime I go there, I feel welcomed, I feel as if I'm one of the boys. I always enjoy it when people notice I'm not from the place & ask me where I'm from & try to pronounce the french name of my town. This can be trivial to some, but to me it shows respect, which I find amazing since all I did to get it was to visit you and return your warm smile.

Oh, and I love the fact that EVERYONE notices that I finish almost all my sentences with "Eh !", when I never noticed it before.

And I LOVE your microbrews.

I'm a Canadian that goes to the States quite a bit. The moment I cross the border, the feeling in the air changes almost immediately. As much as people like to complain, I get the sense that America is great in large part because of this feeling - the sense of freedom and that you can do anything you set your mind to.

The American Dream is still alive and well, and the sense that you can start a business or make something of yourself out of nothing is still prevalent. The entrepreneurial spirit abounds, and so does the self-responsibility for that. I think that's why Canadians feel so welcomed in the U.S., because merchants are actively TRYING to EARN your business (in Canada I get the sense that merchants feel customers should feel grateful for being allowed to shop there, but that's a different thread for a different day).

So what makes America great for me is the "take it by the scruff of the collar and do something with it" attitude of the best of its people (and yes, I know that there are lazy lay-abouts mixed in there too, but it's the sense that you CAN make something of yourself that I'm trying to convey).

I'm doing a terrible job of trying to convey this feeling I get - whether it's the freedom from over-cumbersome regulation, or whether it's the knowledge that nobody will take care of you but you, but the self-reliance is what makes America great, individually, and collectively.

Mark

I think one of my fellow countrymen said it best in 1973, actually.

Background
On June 5, 1973, Gordon Sinclair sat up in bed in Toronto and turned on his TV set. The United States had just pulled out of the Vietnamese War which had ended in a stalemate - a war fought daily on TV, over the radio and in the press. The aftermath of that war resulted in a world-wide sell-off of American investments, prices tumbled, the United States economy was in trouble. The war had also divided the American people, and at home and abroad it seemed everyone was lambasting the United States.

He turned on his radio, twisted the dial and turned it off. He picked up the morning paper. In print, he saw in headlines what he had found on TV and radio - the Americans were taking a verbal beating from nations around the world. Disgusted with what he saw and heard, he was outraged!

At 10:30, on his arrival at CFRB to prepare his two pre-noon broadcasts, he strode into his office and "dashed-off" two pages in 20 minutes for LET'S BE PERSONAL at 11:45 am, and then turned to writing his 11:50 newscast that was to follow. At 12:01 pm, the script for LET'S BE PERSONAL was dropped on the desk of his secretary who scanned the pages for a suitable heading and then wrote "Americans" across the top and filed it away. The phones were already ringing.

http://www.america.ameryka.org/sinclair.html
______________________________________
Transcript of Broadcast by Gordon Sinclair Top
Broadcast June 5, 1973
And later read into the Congressional Record several times

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 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 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.

ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO
COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD

The fact that we feel our freedom is a God given right and not one doled out by the Government...........and that we can a will fire politicians who break and stray from that sacred blood oath....

Originally Posted by Milton Man

I think one of my fellow countrymen said it best in 1973, actually.

Background
On June 5, 1973, Gordon Sinclair sat up in bed in Toronto and turned on his TV set. The United States had just pulled out of the Vietnamese War which had ended in a stalemate - a war fought daily on TV, over the radio and in the press. The aftermath of that war resulted in a world-wide sell-off of American investments, prices tumbled, the United States economy was in trouble. The war had also divided the American people, and at home and abroad it seemed everyone was lambasting the United States.

He turned on his radio, twisted the dial and turned it off. He picked up the morning paper. In print, he saw in headlines what he had found on TV and radio - the Americans were taking a verbal beating from nations around the world. Disgusted with what he saw and heard, he was outraged!

At 10:30, on his arrival at CFRB to prepare his two pre-noon broadcasts, he strode into his office and "dashed-off" two pages in 20 minutes for LET'S BE PERSONAL at 11:45 am, and then turned to writing his 11:50 newscast that was to follow. At 12:01 pm, the script for LET'S BE PERSONAL was dropped on the desk of his secretary who scanned the pages for a suitable heading and then wrote "Americans" across the top and filed it away. The phones were already ringing.

The Americans Gordon Sinclair
______________________________________
Transcript of Broadcast by Gordon Sinclair Top
Broadcast June 5, 1973
And later read into the Congressional Record several times

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 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 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.

ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO
COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD

This is a well written article.
What I need to say is that I think in the last 200 years when the US needed an Ally, the people of Canada and the people of the UK were there for us. Please don't under estimate the importance of the relationship between the US, UK and Canada. My example of this is the Canadians and British on Gold, Juno and Sword and the US on Utah and Omaha.

I don't think we will ever thumb our noses at Canada or the UK.

I have visited the states, I have some friends over there, my late father was a POW in WW2, hitched a ride on Pattens' tank column, and was well looked after by a tank crew.
I like your sense of freedom and independance, you get off your own arses and make it happen, you don't whine for the government to do it for you !! Youre people are just great !!

cheers

I don't know who Gordon Sinclair is or was but he seems to have ignored the UK completely. We have have certainly done our best to stick by the Americans, realising of course, that they have always done the same for us.
When you consider the size, population and natural resources of the USA compared to Britain, size for size, the Brits have always punched above their weight.

The UK has declined markedly over the past 30 years but in our time we have certainly built some good aircraft, trains and automobiles. Some of them, dare I say it, better than the ones made in the USA.
We made some good razors as well.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

I don't know who Gordon Sinclair is or was but he seems to have ignored the UK completely. We have have certainly done our best to stick by the Americans, realising of course, that they have always done the same for us.
When you consider the size, population and natural resources of the USA compared to Britain, size for size, the Brits have always punched above their weight.

The UK has declined markedly over the past 30 years but in our time we have certainly built some good aircraft, trains and automobiles. Some of them, dare I say it, better than the ones made in the USA.
We made some good razors as well.

I think Mr. Sinclair's point was to say that the america bashing that was going on back then (and still is now, but that's a different story...) wasn't right & I don't think talking about the UK would have been relevant to get his point accross. It doesn't mean he didn't think hightly of the UK.

I feel one of the things that makes America Great is that the Individual has so much Worth that he has the right to take arms against threats to his Life or Freedom, which are the same thing to Americans. Live Free or Die.