Are any other members fed up w/ American bashing here???

Hi,

I am not American but what you say is very true.

The hasty generalization and ad hominem fallacies are the two that plague these lists the most. Furthermore people's memories are always very short and sadly history is not compulsory in many school systems these days.

That said, here is a good missive on American bashing written in 1972. It still applies today in many respects:

The Americans

Gordon Sinclair

Radio Station CFBR 1010

2 St. Clair Avenue West

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

"LET'S BE PERSONAL"

Broadcast June 5, 1973

CFRB, Toronto, Ontario

Topic: "The Americans"

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORIGINAL SCRIPT

COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD.

(c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR

Mike Kelly

YES. I've read so many comments degrading the way Americans speak English. Nobody would think to say that Mexicans don't really speak Spanish because they aren't from Spain (for example). People speak languages in different ways, that's part of what makes the world interesting. I also hear a lot of people criticizing the fact that most Americans only speak one language, but then, they've got a point there.

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I think everyone is fed up with our current government, but they need to stop bashing the entire United States. There are so many immigrants here-- we are made up of so many different nationalities and cultures. If they bash us, they are bashing themselves too. Besides, if this country is so bad, why are people still flocking to this country? We have opportunities that other countries would never allow. People need to get that through their thick skulls.

I agree. I have no connection with America whatsoever, but do not see the point in this relentless bashing. It's a stereotype that everybody unfortunately suffers from - I'm Irish, so I must drink a lot and wear green, right?

The way I see it, if it's TRUE, maybe we, as Americans should correct the image. If it's not....those who bash Americans are just JEALOUS and can go pound sand...on IWO JIMA, PEARL HARBOR, BATAAN, NORMANDY BEACH, TARAWA, MONTEZUMA, the shores of TRIPOLI and other places Americans have been wounded, maimed and killed fighting for the freedom of those they didn't even know..

No, not really. For the most part they are correct. The ones that aren't I clarify it to them. The fact is we have a lot to be embarrassed about. I think the reason why you are offended is because you know it is true. I think you should listen to the criticism, determine what is and is not accurate and change what you can in your world.

Yes it is annoying.

But they usually believe blindly what there government tells them about America.

Mike K said it all! :D

uhhhhh yeah!!!!! talk about racist!!!!!