"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."

First, obviously, my sister-in-law is fine. CBS wasn't affected by everything downtown, but for the fact that everything's busier. We talked to her earlier today, and she's fine.

Second, our friends down in Washington are all fine. We have two friends who work in OEOB, and they're both fine, along with one's spouse and the other's fiancée. One of those friends has a father who in the previous administration had an office in the Pentagon. With the change in administrations, he no longer works there, but on his drive in to work this morning, he felt the explosion there. All the people who we've seen today have been able to contact all their loved ones, friends and family.

However, with the good also come the bad. So far this evening, the latest report is the possibility of 800 dead in the Pentagon, six dozen dead policemen in the World Trade Center, and at least 265 dead firefighters, including New York City's fire chief and deputy chief. This doesn't even include the dead from all four plane crashes nor the uncounted loss of life in both towers.

The events of the past 15 hours are being called America's Second Pearl Harbor, and at the moment I'm inclined to agree. The loss of life here is astronomical, probably at least five times as bad as the World War II attack. The psychological effect is just as bad. Whoever did this -- and I'm sure lots of you are making assumptions (as am I) -- has pretty much stuck a sword in America's side.

One of the things that Americans are known for, though, is resilience. We will bounce back from this. I got an email earlier today from one of our friends in Washington with a postscript which I'll paraphrase:

"If whoever did this thinks that there's a hole deep enough for them to crawl into that they'll escape punishment, they're sadly mistaken."

There's another quote I've heard attributed to Admiral Yamamoto after Pearl Harbor. While all his comrades were applauding their surprise attack, he countered, "All we have done is awaken the sleeping beast."

That beast is awake, my friends, and it has sharp claws and nasty, pointy teeth. Any response from the United States will likely be swift, brutal, and unforgiving. I'm not sure that's the right response, but it's likely to be the response we'll get.

There'll be some who'll say, "Why don't we talk to them and find out why they hate us?" Talk to whom? The only name we can put a face to is some Saudi Arabian guy with deep pockets and a fanatical hatred of the United States. If you put John Q. Public in the same room with Mohammed Q. Middle-East, I'm sure the two would have something in common and something to talk about. But let's say you put George W. Bush in the same room with, oh, Osama bin Laden -- just for example, of course. How much talking would get done before one of them pulled a knife or pistol?

About the only thing we can hope for is that this doesn't escalate into World War III.

Or perhaps it already has.

Pray for America, please. We need your help. Pray for our faceless enemies, as well, so that they may better understand us and realize that in the end, it's only about people. And you, me, my neighbors, your neighbors, folks halfway around the world, and all their neighbors ... underneath our differently colored skin and different dress, we all bleed the same color blood.

Too much was spilled today, and it all needs to stop.