email629.xml

email629.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-08-30

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 4:24 PM
Subject: I LOVE NEW YORK!


Dear Friends,

My deepest thoughts and prayers go out to all the families and loved
ones that were effected by last weeks tragedies. If you or anyone you
know is missing a loved one our prayers are with you. We all stand
together sharing your grief and sorrow in this time of despair. The
images of smiling faces posted all over our beautiful city continues
bringing tears to millions. We have each lost a loved one in last weeks
disaster and we all feel your pain and suffering. I believe that we each
lost a piece of ourselves last week.

The heroism, unity and strength we've seen over the past week goes to
show that New York truly is the greatest city in the world. We as
Americans stand united together to defend our democracy and this great
nation against all evil & hatred. Driving through my Brooklyn
neighborhood this past Friday I saw Russians, Italians, Jews, Arabs,
Asians, Latinos and everyone else you can imagine holding candle light
vigils on the streets. It brought tears to my eyes watching us all unite
as one nation....waving our flags! It made me proud to be an American!

Our wounds will eventually heal but our hearts will still feel the pain.
The pain of loss....as those horrible pictures sink into our nightmares
we lost a sense of security, a sense of well being and a sense of
humanity. But we are strong! We will survive!

In the day's following the attack I've received emails from all over the
world. Friends from every religion & nationality sharing their thoughts
& expressing their sympathy. People just checking in to see if we were
alright. They mostly wanted to tell us that they too are feeling our
sincere sorrow all over the world. Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Canada,
Holland, England & France. As I pondered the thoughts of returning to
our normal, everyday lives it dawned on me...things just wont be the
same in New York.....but things just wont be the same anywhere in the
world. Things we thought were so important just over a week ago seem
just so frivolous now dont they? Who can think about work? Who can think
about school? Who can think about laughing? or Dancing? But we must go
on...and we will.

Not only was our country attacked last week but our future as a
civilisation and as a people was attacked. Humanity and freedom was
attacked. The events last week are thought to be carried out by Islamic
Fundamentalist Terrorists but these animals are the furthest things from
being religious. They are just that....they are terrorists! They have no
religion! They dont believe in god and they sure as hell dont speak for
anyone else that does. They merely preach their hatred to the poor using
religion as a means to control the populace in their starving regions.
The true Moslems that I know were my grandparents who were peaceful,
loving, caring people who practiced Islam and came to this country with
a dream....Having one brother who's a New York City Police officer and
another who's an ex United States Marine our family holds the flag with
deep respect and patriotism. We've realised their dreams and no
terrorist will ever take that away from us!

I've felt many emotions since this tragic event and I've thought about
all the various actions that will follow. We must realise that these
terrorists are playing a deadly chess match with America. I just hope
that our next move isn't only to take out a few pawns and maybe capture
a rook or a knight. We must take out their King & Queen! Osama Bin Laden
isn't the only one behind this....he is just a pawn....we have a long
road ahead of us.

Much love and strength to all those who will be risking their lives for
our freedom in the near future.

The NYPD and the FDNY are our American Heroes!

God bless them all & God Bless America!

Sincerely,
Selim

We will be organising various fund-raisers to benefit the families of
victims from last weeks tragic events.

Here are some of the organisations accepting donations.
=====================================================
AMERICAN RED CROSS DISASTER RELIEF FUND
P.O. BOX 3756
CHURCH STREET STATION
NEW YORK, NY 10008

NEW YORK STATE WORLD TRADE CENTER RELIEF FUND
P.O. BOX 5028
ALBANY, NY 12205

THE TWIN TOWERS FUND
GENERAL POST OFFICE
P.O. BOX 26999
NEW YORK, NY 10087-6999

UNITED WAY SEPTEMBER 11TH FUND
2 PARK AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10016

Here are some interesting emails that touched me this past week.
=====================================================
URGENT PRESS RELEASE: America's Movie Theatres To Benefit Relief Efforts
DO NOT RELEASE UNTIL 12:00 p.m. (PST) SEPTEMBER 19th, 2001 America's
Movie Theatres to Hold National Benefit Day For Disaster Relief Efforts

Embargoed until 12:00 p.m. (PST) 9/19/01
North Hollywood, California

The members of America's movie theatre industry, like all Americans,
were deeply saddened by the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. We
wish to express our heartfelt sympathy to all those whose lives were so
painfully altered by last week's terrible events in New York City,
Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. We also recognize and commend the
heroic efforts of the individuals and organizations who have worked so
tirelessly in the rescue and relief operations.

We want to help the cause. Tuesday, September 25th, 2001 will be
"Victims' Benefit Day at the Movies." On that day, 100% of ticket and
concession sales at participating movie theatres nationwide will be
donated to the September 11th Fund of the United Way, and the American
Red Cross for this disaster and the emerging needs resulting from this
tragedy. 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross
and 50% will be donated to the United Way.

A list of participating theatre companies will be available on the
National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) website (natoonline.org).

For further information about the benefit contact the National
Association of Theatre Owners.

Contacts:
John Fithian, President
Mary Ann Grasso, Vice President and Executive Director
National Association of Theatre Owners
North Hollywood, California
(818) 506-1778

=====================================================
Dear Friends,
Trying to find a home for about 20 cats who lost their
human parents last Tuesday.

Does anyone want a cat (or two,) or know anyone who does? The only
requirement is that you should be a good kittie parent (I trust you),
and that you can come to NYC to pick up the cat. Please email me at
jbonnell@penguinputnam.com or Sharren at sharrenbates@hotmail.com if
you, or anyone you know of is interested in adopting a cat. We can get
you more information, like ages, genders, special needs, etc..

If you're not looking for a cat, or can't have one, please pass this on
to someone you think may be interested.

Thanks,
Jen
=====================================================
Dear Friends,

The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an
Afghani-American writer. He is also one of the most brilliant people I
know in this life. When he writes, I read. When he talks, I listen.
Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in. -Gary T.

Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:

I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the
Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would
mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this
atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What
else can we do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing
whether we "have the belly to do what must be done."

And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am
from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've
never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who
will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing.

I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no
doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in
New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters.

But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the
government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant
psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political
criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you
think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of
Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not
only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They
were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone
would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of
international thugs holed up in their country.

Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The
answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A
few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000
disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food.
There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these
widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the
farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons
why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.

We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone
Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already.
Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses?
Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their
hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from
medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that.

New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at
least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the
Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away
and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they
don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over
Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the
criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making
common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've
been raping all this time

So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with
true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there
with ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what
needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill
as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about
killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's
actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some
Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin
Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get any
troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let
us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will
other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're
flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.

And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he
wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's
all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might
seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam
and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a
holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to
lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably
wrong, in the end the west would win, whatever that would mean, but the
war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but
ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does. Anyone else?

Tamim Ansary

==================================================

Below is an email I received from my brother.
He has no office, no remnants of his professional life and everything
in the world to be thankful for - he is a survivor. For those who were
not a fortunate my heart goes out to them. We should do all we can to
support those families in need and stand together with our country.
Ellar4647@aol.com

THE PRICE WE PAY:
My name is Adam Mayblum. I am alive today. I am committing this to
"paper" so I never forget. SO WE NEVER FORGET. I am sure that this is
one of thousands of stories that will emerge over the next several days
and weeks. I arrived as usual a little before 8am. My office was on the
87th floor of 1 World Trade Center, AKA: Tower 1, AKA: the North Tower.
Most of my associates were in by 8:30m. We were standing around, joking
around, eating breakfast, checking emails, and getting set for the day
when the first plane hit just a few stories above us. I must stress that
we did not know that it was a plane. The building lurched violently and
shook as if it were an earthquake. People screamed. I watched out my
window as the building seemed to move 10 to 20 feet in each direction.
It rumbled and shook long enough for me to get my wits about myself and
grab a co-worker and seek shelter under a doorway. Light fixtures and
parts of the ceiling collapsed. The kitchen was destroyed. We were
certain that it was a bomb. We looked out the windows. Reams of paper
were flying everywhere, like a ticker tape parade. I looked down at the
street. I could see people in Battery Park City looking up. Smoke
started billowing in through the holes in the ceiling. I believe that
there were 13 of us. We did not panic. I can only assume that we thought
that the worst was over. The building was standing and we were shaken
but alive. We checked the halls. The smoke was thick and white and did
not smell like I imagined smoke should smell. Not like your BBQ or your
fireplace or even a bonfire. The phones were working. My wife had taken
our 9 month old for his check up. I called my nanny at home and told her
to page my wife, tell her that a bomb went off, I was ok, and on my way
out. I grabbed my laptop. Took off my tee shirt and ripped it into 3
pieces. Soaked it in water. Gave 2 pieces to my friends. Tied my piece
around my face to act as an air filter. And we all started moving to the
staircase. One of my dearest friends said that he was staying until the
police or firemen came to get him. In the halls there were tiny fires
and sparks. The ceiling had collapsed in the men's bathroom. It was gone
along with anyone who may have been in there. We did not go in to look.
We missed the staircase on the first run and had to double back. Once in
the staircase we picked up fire extinguishers just incase. On the 85th
floor a brave associate of mine and I headed back up to our office to
drag out my partner who stayed behind. There was no air, just white
smoke. We made the rounds through the office calling his name. No
response. He must have succumbed to the smoke. We left defeated in our
efforts and made our way back to the stairwell. We proceeded to the 78th
floor where we had to change over to a different stairwell. 78 is the
main junction to switch to the upper floors. I expected to see more
people. There were some 50 to 60 more. Not enough. Wires and fires all
over the place. Smoke too.A brave man was fighting a fire with the
emergency hose. I stopped with to friends to make sure that everyone
from our office was accounted for. We ushered them and confused people
into the stairwell. In retrospect, I recall seeing Harry, my head
trader, doing the same several yards behind me. I am only 35. I have
known him for over 14 years. I headed into the stairwell with 2 friends.
We were moving down very orderly in Stair Case A. very slowly. No panic.
At least not overt panic. My legs could not stop shaking. My heart was
pounding. Some nervous jokes and laughter. I made a crack about ruining
a brand new pair of Merrells. Even still, they were right, my feet felt
great. We all laughed. We checked our cell phones. Surprisingly, there
was a very good signal, but the Sprint network was jammed. I heard that
the Blackberry 2 way email devices worked perfectly. On the phones, 1
out of 20 dial attempts got through. I knew I could not reach my wife so
I called my parents. I told them what happened and that we were all okay
and on the way down. Soon, my sister in law reached me. I told her we
were fine and moving down. I believe that was about the 65th floor. We
were bored and nervous. I called my friend Angel in San Francisco. I
knew he would be watching. He was amazed I was on the phone. He told me
to get out that there was another plane on its way. I did not know what
he was talking about. By now the second plane had struck Tower 2. We
were so deep into the middle of our building that we did not hear or
feel anything. We had no idea what was really going on. We kept making
way for wounded to go down ahead of us. Not many of them, just a few. No
one seemed seriously wounded. Just some cuts and scrapes. Everyone
cooperated. Everyone was a hero yesterday. No questions asked. I had
co-workers in another office on the 77th floor. I tried dozens of times
to get them on their cell phones or office lines. It was futile. Later I
found that they were alive. One of the many miracles on a day of
tragedy. On the 53rd floor we came across a very heavyset man sitting on
the stairs. I asked if he needed help or was he just resting. He needed
help. I knew I would have trouble carrying him because I have a very bad
back. But my friend and I offered anyway. We told him he could lean on
us. He hesitated, I don't know why. I said do you want to come or do you
want us to send help for you. He chose for help. I told him he was on
the 53rd floor in Stairwell A and that's what I would tell the rescue
workers. He said okay and we left. On the 44th floor my phone rang
again. It was my parents. They were hysterical. I said relax, I'm fine.
My father said get out, there is third plane coming. I still did not
understand. I was kind of angry. What did my parents think? Like I
needed some other reason to get going? I couldn't move the thousand
people in front of me any faster. I know they love me, but no one inside
understood what the situation really was. My parents did. Starting
around this floor the firemen, policemen, WTC K-9 units without the
dogs, anyone with a badge, started coming up as we were heading down. I
stopped a lot of them and told them about the man on 53 and my friend on
87. I later felt terrible about this. They headed up to find those
people and met death instead. On the 33rd floor I spoke with a man who
somehow new most of the details. He said 2 small planes hit the
building. Now we all started talking about which terrorist group it was.
Was it an internal organization or an external one? The overwhelming but
uninformed opinion was Islamic Fanatics. Regardless, we now knew that it
was not a bomb and there were potentially more planes coming. We
understood. On the 3r floor the lights went out and we heard & felt this
rumbling coming towards us from above. I thought the staircase was
collapsing upon itself. It was 10am now and that was Tower 2 collapsing
next door. We did not know that. Someone had a flashlight. We passed it
forward and left the stairwell and headed down a dark and cramped
corridor to an exit. We could not see at all. I recommended that
everyone place a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them and
call out if they hit an obstacle so others would know to avoid it. They
did. It worked perfectly. We reached another stairwell and saw a female
officer emerge soaking wet and covered in soot. She said we could not go
that way it was blocked. Go up to 4 and use the other exit. Just as we
started up she said it was ok to go down instead. There was water
everywhere. I called out for hands on shoulders again and she said that
was a great idea. She stayed behind instructing people to do that. I do
not know what happened to her. We emerged into an enormous room. It was
light but filled with smoke. I commented to a friend that it must be
under construction. Then we realized where we were. It was the second
floor. The one that overlooks the lobby. We were ushered out into the
courtyard, the one where the fountain used to be. My first thought was
of a TV movie I saw once about nuclear winter and fallout. I could not
understand where all of the debris came from. There was at least five
inches of this gray pasty dusty drywall soot on the ground as well as a
thickness of it in the air. Twisted steel and wires. I heard there were
bodies and body parts as well, but I did not look. It was bad enough. We
hid under the remaining overhangs and moved out to the street. We were
told to keep walking towards Houston Street. The odd thing is that there
were very few rescue workers around. Less than five. They all must have
been trapped under the debris when Tower 2 fell. We did not know that
and could not understand where all of that debris came from. It was just
my friend Kern and I now. We were hugging but sad. We felt certain that
most of our friends ahead of us died and we knew no one behind us. We
came upon a post office several blocks away. We stopped and looked up.
Our building, exactly where our office is (was), was engulfed in flame
and smoke. A postal worker said that Tower 2 had fallen down. I looked
again and sure enough it was gone. My heart was racing. We kept trying
to call our families. I could not get in touch with my wife. Finally I
got through to my parents. Relived is not the word to explain their
feelings. They got through to my wife, thank G-d and let her know I was
alive. We sat down. A girl on a bike offered us some water. Just as she
took the cap off her bottle we heard a rumble. We looked up and our
building, Tower 1 collapsed. I did not note the time but I am told it
was 10:30am. We had been out less than 15 minutes. We were mourning our
lost friends, particularly the one who stayed in the office as we were
now sure that he had perished. We started walking towards Union Square.
I was going to Beth Israel Medical Center to be looked at. We stopped to
hear the President speaking on the radio. My phone rang. It was my wife.
I think I fell to my knees crying when I heard her voice. Then she told
me the most incredible thing. My partner who had stayed behind called
her. He was alive and well. I guess we just lost him in the commotion.
We started jumping and hugging and shouting. I told my wife that my
brother had arranged for a hotel in midtown. He can be very resourceful
in that way. I told her I would call her from there. My brother and I
managed to get a gypsy cab to take us home to Westchester instead. I
cried on my son and held my wife until I fell asleep. As it turns out
my partner, the one who I thought had stayed behind was behind us with
Harry Ramos, our head trader. This is now second hand information. They
came upon Victor, the heavyset man on the 53rd floor. They helped him.
He could barely move. My partner bravely/stupidly tested the elevator on
the 52nd floor. He rode it down to the sky lobby on 44. The doors
opened, it was fine. He rode it back up and got Harry and Victor. I
don't yet know if anyone else joined them. Once on 44 they made their
way back into the stairwell. Someplace around the 39th to 36th floors
they felt the same rumble I felt on the 3rd floor. It was 10am and Tower
2 was coming down. They had about 30 minutes to get out. Victor said he
could no longer move. They offered to have him lead on them. He said he
couldn't do it. My partner hollered at him to sit on his butt and
schooch down the steps. He said he was not capable of doing it. Harry
told my partner to go ahead of them. Harry had once had a heart attack
and was worried about this mans heart. It was his nature to be this way.
He was/is one of the kindest people I know. He would not leave a man
behind. My partner went ahead and made it out. He said he was out maybe
10 minutes before the building came down. This means that Harry had
maybe 25 minutes to move Victor 36 floors. I guess they moved 1 floor
every 1.5 minutes. Just a guess. This means Harry wad around the 20th
floor when the building collapsed. As of now 12 of 13 people are
accounted for. As of 6pm yesterday his wife had not heard from him. I
fear that Harry is lost. However, a short while ago I heard that he may
be alive. Apparently there is a web site with survivor names on it and
his name appears there. Unfortunately, Ramos is not an uncommon name in
New York. Pray for him and all those like him. With regards to the
firemen heading upstairs, I realize that they were going up anyway. But,
it hurts to know that I may have made them move quicker to find my
friend. Rationally, I know this is not true and that I am not the
responsible one. The responsible ones are in hiding somewhere on this
planet and damn them for making me feel like this. But they should know
that they failed in terrorizing us. We were calm. Those men and women
that went up were heroes in the face of it all. They must have known
what was going on and they did their jobs. Ordinary people were heroes
too. Today the images that people around the world equate with power and
democracy are gone but "America" is not an image it is a concept. That
concept is only strengthened by our pulling together as a team. If you
want to kill us, leave us alone because we will do it by ourselves. If
you want to make us stronger, attack and we unite. This is the ultimate
failure of terrorism against The United States and the ultimate price we
pay to be free, to decide where we want to work, what we want to eat,
and when & where we want to go on vacation. The very moment the first
plane was hijacked, democracy won.

==================================================================
This says it all from a writer named Leonard Pitts, Jr. from the Miami
herald.

We'll go forward from this moment

It's my job to have something to say. They pay me to provide words that
help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this
moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only
thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be
addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our
World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would
learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.

Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.

Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a
family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a
family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending
tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's
revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're
wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material
goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain
sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though --
peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and
to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith,
believers in a just and loving God.

Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us
weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways
that cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN

Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're
still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still
working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect
from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom
Clancy novel.

Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable
final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts
of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the
history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied
before.

But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us
fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last
time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such
abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our
outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of
barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length,
in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you,
I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble
with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers
pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can
be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened
security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward
from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too.
Unimaginably determined.

THE STEEL IN US

You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of
our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On
this day, the family's bickering is put on hold.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans,
we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that
maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's
the case, consider the message received. And take this message in
exchange:

You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You
don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn.

================================================================

A TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

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.

Wednesday, September 19, 2001 4:24 PM

I LOVE NEW YORK!