Ode To Spirit
Deborah Venable
03/15/08
Does
the name, Cornel Nistorescu ring any bells for anyone? I’ll give you a hint – he isn’t an
American. How about the name, Gordon
Sinclair? He isn’t American either –
but I’ll say this, they have shown more understanding of what it is like to be
American than far too many of my native countrymen have lately.
Cornel Nistorescu
You
might recall that soon after 911 an article circulated around the internet,
originally published in the Romanian newspaper, Evenimentul zilei ("The Daily Event" or "News of the Day") on
September 24, 2001. It was titled,
"Cîntarea
Americii"
(Ode To America”) and the author was Cornel Nistorescu. This is the English translation of that
article: Source
Why are Americans so united? They don't
resemble one another even if you paint them! They speak all the languages of
the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are
nearly extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of
religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are. Still, the
American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the
heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services
that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank
accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans
volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments
of panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps
and ties in the colours of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings
and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or the president was
passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song:
"God Bless America!".
Silent as a rock, I watched the charity
concert broadcast on Saturday once, twice, three times, on different tv channels.
There were Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts,
Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stalone, James Wood,
and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together. The
American's solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually, choir is not
the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul.
What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say
without facing the risk of stumbling over words and sounds, was being heard in
a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert. I don't know how it
happened that all this obsessive singing of America didn't sound croaky,
nationalist, or ostentatious! It made you green with envy because you weren't able
to sing for your country without running the risk of being considered
chauvinist, ridiculous, or suspected of who-knows-what mean interests. I
watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for hours listening to
the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a
wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player,
who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target
that would have killed other hundreds of thousands of people. How on earth were
they able to bow before a fellow human? Imperceptibly, with every word and
musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes.
And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a
collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing
can buy.
What on earth can unite the Americans in
such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I
tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which
risk of sounding like commonplaces. I thought things over, but I reached only
one conclusion.
Only freedom can work such miracles!
Reviving the Spirit
Almost
six and a half years have passed and all but erased this “solidarity spirit” of
which Mr. Nistorescu so eloquently wrote.
Just pick up any newspaper here at home, or listen to any media analyst
or even college professor in the country and you will hear only of our
disunity, negativity, “divisiveness”, selfish insistencies on being “taken care
of” by our government, and our total disrespect for the mere mention of some of
our “galloping history”. We can’t even
remain unified in battling the obvious threats to everything we are and
everything we hold dear. We’re a
whining bunch of weaklings that had rather deny the truth of our enemies’
intentions than support the righteousness of our struggle to survive with our
freedom and our heritage intact. At
least that is what can be observed.
What
would it take to rekindle this solidarity spirit and embrace the truth that
makes us uniquely American again? Well,
we would have to hear a lot more truth than falsehood expressed by our own
media and extolled from the podiums of academia than we do now. Or, some will tell you that all it would
take to see that unity, that spirit shine through again would be another
vicious attack from the outside. Would
that remind us that it certainly wasn’t the first time? Would that awaken us to memories we so
quickly buried of innocent people jumping to their deaths rather than being
roasted alive? Would that again bring
so many in the liberal entertainment world forward to raise millions of dollars
for the victims? Would that bring about
another rush on the Chinese factories that produce most of our flags because
Americans would be clamoring to hang out our symbol of unity for all the world
and our neighbors to see?
I
would suggest that an honest study of our history, heritage and heroes should
be sufficient, as well as an honest assessment of our blessings – THAT should
be more than adequate to quell the divisiveness.
Gordon Sinclair
From
this
source
I pulled the following background story of how Canadian, Gordon Sinclair was
inspired to write a couple of pages that he then broadcast over his radio show
in Toronto. The piece was quickly
picked up and circulated under the name, “The Americans”. By the time Mr. Sinclair passed away some
eleven years later, he had garnered the respect and attention of a grateful
nation. More than an educational
generation has passed since his death, and I can guarantee that his message is
not being taught in our schools – even though if it were, we may well see more
of that solidarity spirit.
The True Story of how
"The Americans" came to be and the
magnificent events that followed its
original broadcast
~~~o~~~
|
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") |
The
Americans
|
Gordon Sinclair "LET'S BE PERSONAL" |
|
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 PUBLISHED BY STAR QUALITY MUSIC (SOCAN) |
Where does the truth hide?
We
should not have to dig for stories like this – for information on people such
as Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Nistorescu.
They should be front and center in the textbooks our children are taught
from, as recognizable as any movie star, past or present, that you can think
of, as familiar as any of the foreign rock stars that have ever won awards and
made their fortunes from the American public’s consumption of their art forms –
in other words, they should not be confined to obscurity. But then, what are we to expect when real
American heroes are being eliminated from textbooks, or suffering a rewritten
history of their accomplishments?
Man
On the Street interviews of the “average American” these days show a despicable
lack of knowledge about our current political leaders, but have you ever tried
asking a young person to tell you what he knows about George Washington, or
Thomas Jefferson? How about Robert E.
Lee? Are school children being taught
to retain anything they learn about the history of their country?
People
are not being educated any more, they are being brainwashed – pure and
simple. Indoctrinated into a belief
system that heroism is not important and freedom is not worth the price of
responsibility, today’s average citizen is being led around by an emotional
nose ring of exaggerated guilt from a few of humanity’s greatest shames. Man’s inhumanity to man in the form of
subjugation and slavery is not uniquely American, but the descendants of
American slaves have been so convincingly plied with the notion that they are
still seen as sub-human by the majority of people in the world, I think all
that will satisfy them is some kind of superiority or reparations for the
suffering of their ancestors. Many do not
mince words in telling you so. The continent
of Africa must be given top billing in their identity label for themselves even
though few could tell you their ancestral country
of origin. Indeed in some of those
countries their native modern peers still suffer much greater inhumanity than
was ever suffered here. But they will
not answer to that. They wish only to
hold onto a fictional bitterness and an imagined reality of victimhood.
The
same may be said of some in the Native American community. These people are seen as gentle victims of the
evil white man, when in actuality the white invaders are the very reason many
survived as a tribe instead of being destroyed by other tribes that knew only
hatred and war against them. But they
also will not answer to that.
Then
there is the gender war. American women
of all races and all religions have formed a sisterhood against “the man” whom
they credit with all their feminine woes.
They act as if they as a group are still suppressed, suffering as an
underclass, and due a rise to unequaled power.
They will not be happy with anything less than an Amazon society where
men are subjugated to the will of the much stronger females. They insist on foolishly using their wombs
as a bargaining chip and the male sexual drive as their equalizer. With no thought of the effects their
attitudes will have on the survival of the species, much less the survival of
moral heritage, this is perhaps the most dangerous group of imagined victims in
America today.
Evil
human intent thwarts God’s law when it tells us that human dominion over the
other vast species and environs of the earth is flawed, therefore we should
subjugate human welfare at all costs.
According to this thinking there is no justification for human impact on
the rest of the earth. We may as well
be battling the dinosaurs with our bare hands as we try to reach those
entrenched in radical environmentalism.
For those who say they believe in a Creator, yet still hold such views,
how can they possibly have such little faith in God’s judgment – that which
clearly gives us dominion and a spirit fashioned from His own? Non-believers must continue an evolution to
a point where humanity becomes extinct to have their point proven I guess.
All
of these groups have been spawned deliberately by the real evil human intent at
work all over the globe. For those who
wish to see freedom stamped out forever and will stop at nothing to stir up a
revolution to that end – we are their
victims!
Being a victim is not something I intend to embrace. I have been blessed beyond measure to be born of wonderful parents, to grow up in more freedom than the world had ever known – before or since I was young, and inspired to seek truth over fantasy and do my best to pass that along. I have been witness to more “change” than any other generation this country has ever produced – both wonderful change and that not so great. Change happens naturally. The good and lasting change evolves – the dangerous kind is coerced or mandated. Honest history sorts it all out quite well, but you have to be willing to learn it and accept it. Most of all you have to be patient with the constant ebb and flow of positive change and you have to nurture the spirit with more appreciation than regret about events that lead to the present so that you can be an able guardian of that spirit that will direct the future. God bless America and all those who know her for what she truly is.