Honk If You Like The USA, Eh!

Mike Causey

Honk If You Like The USA, Eh!

July 4th greetings, from the heart, from Senior Correspondent Mike Causey.

Federal News Network Staff

July 3, 2009 4:00 am

3 min read

I’m doing this “July 4th” column a little early in hopes that more people will read it. Holidays, especially Independence Day, aren’t high readership days.

But this one is important, especially now. And there is no ego involved because while I love it, I didn’t write it. Not one word.

It is obligatory in this business to write a special column, with great feeling and emotion, about holidays like Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Independence Day. Even if you have to fake it which, trust me, a lot of people do.

The important thing is to wrench the heart of your readers. To show them how deeply you care about the folks being honored, even if your heart really isn’t in it. Maybe you didn’t like your parents (or they you) or you aren’t doing such a hot job as a Mom or Dad. Or you praise our vets and those who have sacrificed even though most of your friends know you are anti-military.

You get the idea. This is, maybe, why some people say you shouldn’t believe everything you read, hear or even see.

But believe this, and maybe pass it on to a friend or relative: this is a dynamite column, from the heart. I know because I didn’t write it. I’m just the middleman in passing on something I think all of you should hear, or read. It was written in 1973 but it sounds like today.

It’s the tribute of a respected (now deceased) Canadian broadcaster named Gordon Sinclair. It was broadcast on June 5, 1973. The things he talks about are eerily like today (the dollar is down in Europe and Asia, the midwest is flooding, American communities are being flattened by tornadoes. Etc.)

In the 1972 broadcast, Mr. Sinclair says he’s sick of people – his fellow Canadians, Brits, Germans, the French, etc. – knocking America. He says this is the most generous country in the world (it was then, still is today.) That we’ve helped them, all of them, time and time again. But when things get tough here, nobody comes to help.

Is it corny? Only 100 percent. But it is also timely. And true. Even if you disagree, I think everybody should read it. Then pass it on to people in the U.S. or Europe or Asia who have hated/envied us for decades.

In his broadcast, he says Uncle Sam will recover (we did) from the problems of 1973 which sound a lot like today.

Here’s part of what he wrote and broadcast:

“…Our neighbors 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.”

Here’s what he said. Reading it is inspiring. Hearing it, in his own words, is even more so. Hope you like it. Check it out by clicking here.