This is about a
"Relationship" -- A relationship with "Our Country
America"
"The
Americans" Broadcast Transcript
Overview
Biography
-- Gordon Sinclair
28
years later 2001
The
USA Page - America The Beautiful
Well
go forward from this moment by Leonard Pitts Jr, The Miami Herald
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MANUAL -- Osama bin Laden
NOTE SEPTEMBER 13, 2001:
We have a translation of the TERRORIST
MANUAL -- Osama bin Laden
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Transcript
of the famous original broadcast follows:
The Americans
Transcript of Broadcast by Gordon Sinclair
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.
Source: http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/schools/rta/ccf/news/unique/am_text.html
ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO
COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD.
(c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR
PUBLISHED BY STAR QUALITY MUSIC (SOCAN)
A DIVISION OF UNIDISC MUSIC INC.
578 HYMUS BOULEVARD
POINTE-CLAIRE, QUEBEC,
CANADA, H9R 4T2
Top
Recalled by J.
Lyman Potts who was "there"
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.
Gordon Sinclair could not have
written a book that could have had a greater impact in the world than
his two-page script for The Americans. A
book should have been written on the events that followed. But, no one
at CFRB, including Sinclair himself, could have envisioned the
reaction of the people of the United States - from presidents - state
governors - Congress - the Senate - all media including TV, radio,
newspapers, magazines - and from the "ordinary" American on
the street. Nor, could have the Canadian government - stunned by the
response to what has come to be regarded as one of Canada's greatest
public relations feats in the history of our relations with the United
States of America.
But, how did Sinclair's tribute to
Americans reach them? It had been swept across the United States at
the speed of a prairie fire by American radio stations - first, a
station in Buffalo called and asked to be fed a tape copy of the
broadcast with permission to use - both freely given. Nearby American
stations obtained copies from Buffalo or called direct. By the time it
reached the Washington, DC area, a station had superimposed Sinc's
broadcast over an instrumental version of BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER,
and was repeating it at fixed times several times-a-day.
Congressmen and Senators heard it. It
was read several times into the Congressional Record. Assuming that it
was on a phono (33 1/3 rpm), Americans started a search for a copy.
CFRB was contacted. To satisfy the demand, CFRB started to make
arrangements with AVCO, an American record company, to manufacture and
distribute it as a "single".
As they were finalizing a contract
that would see all royalties which would normally be due Gordon
Sinclair be paid (at his request) to the American Red Cross. Word was
received that an unauthorized record, using Sinclair's script but read
by another broadcaster, was already flooding the US market.
(Subsequently, on learning that this broadcaster had agreed to turn
over his royalties to the Red Cross, no legal action was taken).
Sinclair's recording of his own work
(to which Avco had added a stirring rendition of THE BATTLE HYMN OF
THE REPUBLIC) did finally reach record stores, and sold hundreds of
thousands of copies, but the potential numbers were depressed by the
sale of the infringing record. Other record producers and performers
(including Tex Ritter) obtained legal permission to make their own
versions. In Ritter's case, because of the first-person style of the
script, Tex preceded his performance with a proper credit to Sinclair
as the author. The American Red Cross received millions of dollars in
royalties, and Gordon Sinclair was present at a special ceremony
acknowledging his donation.
Advertisers using print media
contacted CFRB for permission to publish the text in a non-commercial
manner; industrial plants asked for the right to print the script in
leaflet form to handout to their employees.
Gordon Sinclair received invitations
to attend and be honoured at many functions in the United States
which, by number and due to family health problems at the time, he had
to decline. However, CFRB newscaster Charles Doering, was flown to
Washington to give a public reading of The
Americans to the 28th National Convention of the United States Air
Force Association, held September 18, 1974 at the Sheraton Park Hotel.
His presentation was performed with the on-stage backing of the U.S.
Air Force Concert Band, joined by the 100-voice Singing Sergeants in a
special arrangement of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
8 years after the first broadcast of The
Americans, U.S. President Ronald Reagan made his first official
visit to Canada. At the welcoming ceremonies on Parliament Hill, the
new President praised "the Canadian journalist who wrote that
(tribute)" to the United States when it needed a friend. Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau had Sinclair flown to Ottawa to be his guest
at the reception that evening.
Sinc had a long and pleasant
conversation with Mr. Reagan. The President told him that he had a
copy of the record of The Americans at
his California ranch home when he was governor of the state, and
played it from time to time when things looked gloomy.
On the evening of May 15th, 1984,
following a regular day's broadcasting, Gordon Sinclair suffered a
heart attack. He died on May 17th. As the word of his illness spread
throughout the United States, calls inquiring about his condition had
been received from as far away as Texas. The editorial in the Sarasota
Herald-Tribune of May 28th was typical of the reaction of the United
States news media - A GOOD FRIEND PASSES ON.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan: "I
know I speak for all Americans in saying the radio editorial Gordon
wrote in 1973 praising the accomplishments of the United States was a
wonderful inspiration. It was not only critics abroad who forgot this
nation's many great achievements, but even critics here at home.
Gordon Sinclair reminded us to take pride in our nation's fundamental
values."
Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau:
"Gordon Sinclair's death ends one of the longest and most
remarkable careers in Canadian Journalism. His wit, irreverence,
bluntness and off-beat views have been part of the media landscape for
so long that many Canadians had come to believe he would always be
there."
Following a private family service,
two thousand people from all walks of life filled Nathan Phillips
Square in front of Toronto's City Hall for a public service of
remembrance organized by Mayor Art Eggleton. Dignitaries joining him
on the platform were Ontario Lieutenant-Governor, John Black Aird; the
Premier of Ontario, William Davis; and Metro Chairman Paul Godfrey.
Tens of thousands more joined them through CFRB's live broadcast of
the service which began symbolically at 11:45 - the regular time of
Sinc's daily broadcast of LET'S BE PERSONAL.
As Ontario Premier William Davis said
of him "The name GORDON
SINCLAIR could become the classic definition of a full life."
Recalled by J.
Lyman Potts who was "there"
Overview by the: Canadian Communications Foundation
Top
Biography
-- Gordon Sinclair (1900-1984)
The "biggest name" in
Canadian broadcast journalism is "Gordon Sinclair".
It is a name respected (sometimes
reviled) by Canadians - a name revered by Americans in all fifty
states and around the world.
At 22 in 1922, Gordon Sinclair
appeared on the payroll of theToronto Daily Star as a reporter. After
four uneventful years, he became Women's Editor from which position he
was rescued after writing a series of articles on hoboes. Duly
impressed, his bosses sent him around the world (four times, no less)
as a wandering reporter - a series of assignments in the late twenties
and the thirties that covered 360,000 miles, through all continents,
to most of the world's countries and on all oceans except the
Antarctic.
Of these adventures, he wrote four
books FOOTLOOSE IN INDIA, CANNIBAL QUEST, LOOSE AMONG THE DEVILS and
KHYBER CARAVAN. In the early part of World War Two, "Sinc"
incurred the displeasure of Canada's senior generals and admirals, and
was listed as persona non grata as a war correspondent - a ban that
was never lifted.
His career took a turn on August 19,
1942 that brought him into radio - the raid on Dieppe. The following
day, he was asked to come up with some hurried biographical sketches
of leaders in that raid - five of which were fed to a network. The
result was a mid-day personality series - LET'S BE PERSONAL - on
Canada's leading radio station, CFRB Toronto, which continued to the
time of his death. The following January, he was told by the Toronto
Star that he must quit radio or the paper. After 21 years as a
newspaper man, he opted for radio and became a free-lancer. His next
venture, which lasted for 4 seasons, was a travelling radioshow -
ONTARIO PANORAMA.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Sinclair
joined CFRB's News Department with a ten-minute newscast at 11:50 am,
following his LET'S BE PERSONAL. Three years later, he also took on
the 5:50 pm news,and subsequently preceded it with another 5-minute
feature - SHOWBUSINESS. Sinc's four daily features on CFRB pulled huge
audiences and drew listeners away from other stations in its coverage
area during periods when he was on the air.
Granted a leave from CFRB in 1948,
Gordon took a fifth trip around the world by way of Japan, China and
Malaya, and on to Europe. He saw the take-over of China by the
communists and the lifting of the Berlin road blockade by the
Russians. He returned to CFRB in '49 on a day-to-day basis, but it was
not until 1960, after being with the station for 16 years, than he
signed his first contract.
In 1957, Gordon Sinclair became a
charter member of a weekly panel show on the CBC-TV Network - FRONT
PAGE CHALLENGE - which developed into Canada's longest-running
television program, and which was terminated in 1995.
Gordon Sinclair's greatest
achievement was his CFRB LET'S BE PERSONAL broadcast of June 5, 1973 -
a broadcast which echoed around the world and which history will
record as one of the most respected tributes from Canada to the people
of the United States of America.
The United States had just pulled out
of the Vietnam War which ended in a stalemate - a war fought daily on
TV, over radio and in the press. The war had divided the American
people, and at home and abroad it seemed everyone was lambasting the
United States. Outraged by what he saw and heard that morning, in his
noon-hour broadcast Sinclair rose to the defense of the American
people- and his voice was heard around the world - and as no Canadian
had before - or since. For weeks afterwards, his words were repeated
over and over again from thousands of radio stations - were read into
the U. S. Congressional Records several times and, at the insistence
of the American people, recorded for their keeping for posterity.
The phenomenon of Gordon Sinclair's
"The Americans" is
recounted under "News" in the General Directory - Unique
Stories.
Gordon Sinclair received many honours
and awards from governors of several U.S. states, including being made
an honourary citizen of North Carolina. Apart from American awards,
for his exceptional role as a Canadian, in 1979, Gordon was appointed
an Officer of the Order of Canada. Previously, on his 70th birthday,
June 3,1970, THE GORDON SINCLAIR AWARD was inaugurated for
"outspoken opinions and integrity in broadcasting". In 1972,
he was named to Canada's NEWS HALL OF FAME. In 1974, he received the
GORDON LOVE NEWS TROPHY. Also, in '74, he was the recipient of the
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD OF THE RADIO/TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTORS
ASSOCIATION "for Challenging and Courageous Commentary". In
1984, posthumously, Gordon Sinclair was inducted into THE CAB
BROADCAST HALL OF FAME.
Other Gordon Sinclair books - BRIGHT
PATHS TO ADVENTURE (1950),SIGNPOST TO ADVENTURE (1952), WILL THE REAL
GORDON SINCLAIR PLEASE STAND UP? (1966) and WILL THE REAL GORDON
SINCLAIR PLEASE SIT DOWN? (1975).
An amusing "history" of
CFRB, published in the 70s,co-authored by Donald Jack and Betty
Kennedy, is titled SINC, BETTY AND THE MORNING MAN (aka Wally
Crouter -see Hall of Fame)
Source: http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/schools/rta/ccf/personal/hof/sincla_g.html
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Friday September 14, 2001 6:39 AM
ET
Old Radio Script Praising U.S. Is a Web Hit
By Wency Leung
TORONTO (Reuters) - Words of praise
for the United States spoken nearly 30 years ago by a Canadian
broadcaster flew around the Internet on Thursday, fooling but
providing comfort for the many who thought it was penned in response
to Tuesday's attacks by hijacked airliners.
An electronic version of "The
Americans,'' which was originally broadcast by the late Canadian
journalist Gordon Sinclair, was e-mailed under the guise of a recent
editorial -- despite the fact Sinclair died in 1984 and wrote the
script in 1973, toward the end of the Vietnam War.
"Widespread but only partial
news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial
broadcast... by Gordon Sinclair,'' the e-mail said in its introduction
to the script.
In the script, Sinclair praised the
United States, calling it "the most generous and possibly the
least appreciated people on all the earth.''
Many Americans applauded Sinclair on
Web sites that carried his message.
"My thanks to Gordon Sinclair
for his powerful and thought provoking words. For me, and I hope for
you, his words brings back a little of the pride we used to have in
being an American,'' one wrote on a U.S. Web site.
"What a refreshing article.
Thank you... Gordon Sinclair,'' another e-mail respondent said.
Sinclair said: "I can name 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? ... 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.''
Canadian broadcast journalist Betty
Kennedy, who was a friend of Sinclair's, told Reuters he wrote the
radio speech in response to reports that the American Red Cross was on
the verge of bankruptcy.
"He was so incensed by this,''
Kennedy said. He wrote the speech in five minutes and immediately read
it over the radio.
"The response from it was
absolutely unbelievable,'' she recalled. "The thing absolutely
snowballed.''
Kennedy said she believed the
transcript resurfaced, which won wide play in the United States at the
time, because it spoke well of the American people.
"It was so warm-hearted... At a
time of terrible trouble...they (Americans) probably need to remember
that.''
Top
BY LEONARD PITTS JR. The Miami
Herald
leonardpitts@mindspring.com
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.
Source: http://www.miami.com/herald/special/news/worldtrade/digdocs/008039.htm
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