From the Canadian Border With Love...

[Ebony]

No: HPFGUIDX 26094

Dear HP4GUers:

It's been a horrific week for us all.  Life has changed irrevocably.

I have family and friends who work in Manhattan, in D.C. (one 
formerly working at the Pentagon, very recently transferred to 
Quantico), and in Chicago's Loop.  I got word that everyone in the 
first two locations was OK within the first 24 hours.  I was 
extremely frightened for the HP fandom regulars as well.

The U.S./Canada border, 7 minutes from my front door in rush hour 
traffic, used to be as easy to cruise through as going across the 
street.  Around here we don't think Canada's another country... too 
many Canadians work here, including three teachers at my school who 
commute back and forth every day.  (My school's 4-5 minutes away from 
the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, if that.)

But on Tuesday, we in Detroit got a wake-up call when the border was 
temporarily closed.  Those teachers could not go home.  Relatives who 
were in Canada--who could SEE home from where they were--couldn't 
cross.  The border's opened again, but it just may never be the same 
again... it now takes the average car 3-6 HOURS to cross... it used 
to take me 4-6 MINUTES.  Every car is stopped and searched.  Every 
passenger is thoroughly interrogated.

The US/Canadian border is the longest "open" border on the planet.  
If you live in a border city in the northern US, you know what I 
mean... it's nothing even like the US/Mexico border.  You don't need 
a passport, no one asks you for your ID--you just pay the toll, say 
where you're going in Canada (you can even make something up if you 
want), and cross.  (The action movie "The Jackal" with Bruce Willis 
illustrates very well how much of a cakewalk the entire St. Lawrence 
Seaway/Great Lakes section of the border is for terrorists.)  Because 
of this attack, one wonders if things will ever be the same again.

One of the students at my school was directly affected--her older 
brother was on one of the planes that crashed into the WTC.  When the 
TV was turned on and she was in the classroom, she rushed out of the 
classroom and down to the first floor (my new HS is 8 stories high).  
When the flight was announced on television, I was told the child 
*screamed*... but had the misfortune to be around an insensitive 
security guard who told her to be quiet, because hysterics wouldn't 
bring her brother back.  She told the grieving mother the same thing 
when she arrived moments later to pick the child up.  She related 
this to me yesterday proudly--"I told her I would NOT allow her into 
this building until she dried those tears, because she had to be 
strong for her daughter."  I just *looked* at the woman when she told 
me that.

My immediate concern in my local community is for our Americans--
citizens and permanent residents--from the Middle East.  Southeastern 
Michigan has the largest concentration of Arabic speakers in the 
United States... and anti-Arab prejudice here over the past couple of 
days has been horrific.  On Tuesday night, a local Muslim was 
battered.  This morning, the Islamic Student Association was 
vandalized horribly... it is located two doors away from my 
building.  Over the past few days I have heard prejudice against our 
neighbors spouted on talk radio, on television, and out of the mouths 
of passers-by, co-workers, and students.

How vastly unfair.  How hypocritical.  We are grieving... but let's 
not forget that there are plenty of loyal-to-the-bone Americans who 
look just like the people who are responsible this horror.  Judge the 
individual, NOT the group.

In closing, here's something I read on one of the boards from a 
Canadian commentator.  I hope it encourages someone.

---------------
A TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES 

This is worth sharing. 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... America: The Good Neighbor. 

"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!" 

--Ebony AKA AngieJ