I think the Americans are great

Looking at the recent news footage from Haiti, it occurred to me that it's about time we in the rest of the world gave a mighty thank you to the American people for the way they get in and help where help is needed.

Haiti is just the most recent example. Look at disaters anytime, anywhere in the world and the Yanks are frequently the first ones on the scene with manpower, equipment and food aid to save lives.

As a Brit, I'm keenly aware of the same sorts of action taken by France, Italy, the Scandinavians and many others, including my own country. That is how it should be when a neighbour needs help. What makes it different in the case of America, is that no matter what they do, they are despised for it. Why? Because America is seen as a force for evil in many countries and as an overwhelmingly threatening power in many more. I do not believe this to be true or representative of the will of the American people.

Let's all remember who the American paople are, where they came from and what their aspirations in going to the USA were. Here, I confess to a personal interest. My own dear niece went to live in Grand Rapids MI back in the nineties. She made a success of her brief life there but was struck down by cancer agred twenty eight years and now lies under the soil in the town where she made her home. Some of my blood lies in that soil with her.

Americans are all of us. Every colour, creed and class of person was welcomed to the youthful USA to create a population. Such a thing never happened before or since, where a nations doors were flung open and downtrodden people invited in and told to go and make their fortune. Can you imagine? After living under the yoke of the aristocracy and landed gentry of the old world, to suddenly be everone's equal? To have every opportunity? Just look what they achieved. I've seen just a small corner of the country and I still don't believe it.

I know about the subjugation of the native peoples - I know how appallingly they were treated and refuse to excuse it. What I also know is that they were grains of sand on a beach with an unstoppable wave crashing in on them. Their fate was to be washed away - a tragedy befalling all who could not adapt to the new ways. For that I feel enormous sorrow. New seeds grew in the soil and something beyond the wildest imagination flowered from them.

What it all boils down to is a country that despite its travails, its ups and downs, still has the heart and the will to help a neighbour with all the power it can muster. We are all people of the world, people of America, Arabs, Jews, everybody. Shall we stop fighting and give each other a big slap on the back and a word of thanks? But most of all:

Thank you America.