The Hannaian Scripts

War & The Markets…….We are all Americans
Harlington L. Hanna Jr.
9/15/2001

• The markets have been closed for a historic 4 days this week due to the terrorist Attack on the U.S. The terrorists attacks are already having far flung consequences around the world and it appears that these effects will be with us for awhile. For those whose business relates directly to investments and the stock markets this attack has the added significance of having been directed right at the heart of the world's financial center.

  However, before we get too absorbed wondering what will happen to the markets, we need to step aside and think about the human problems the families of those who have lost loved ones, and those who have been injured are enduring. We wonder how those who do such senseless acts do not understand that there are much better ways to resolve their problems. At this sad time let us all do what ever we can to relieve the suffering and to make the world the kind of place in which we can resolve our problems and issues in more sensible ways.

  The lesson all of us will probably learn from this senseless terrorism is that an attack upon the U.S. is really an attack upon each of us, no matter what country we live in or may call home. This rare and unique attack directly on the U.S. mainland was actually an attack upon the world. Numerous non-U.S. citizens lost their lives in the World Trade Center. Financial markets, political activities, and national economies were affected all over the globe. Finally, the safe and secure image of the unique coalition of peoples, states, and corporations which we call the United States of America may forever be changed in the minds of people all over the world.

  Unlike most nations which have had their birth and origins in a pot of homogeneity born of traditions and cradled by indigenous customs, the United States is of a distinctly different origin. The U.S. is a country manufactured, planned, and built from the blood, sweat, and tears of people from all over the world. As such, all of us no matter where we live have an inherent interest in the U.S.. Even those who are technically not U.S. citizens and who may have never set foot on U.S. soil has as much of an interest in the U.S. as any citizen. So, an attack on the U.S. is an attack on all of us, after all the U.S. is nothing but some of each of us from everyplace else. In a very short 200 years we have assembled in one place and collectively made that place the one nation that represents all of us. This nation was specifically developed to provide a safe haven for those from the rest of the world and has grown to do just that, to become the representative nation for everyone the world over. There is no other place in the world where a foreigner can reside and feel more at home.

  So….whoever it was that decided they were striking out against the U.S. should realize that they were attacking their own families, their friends, themselves. Unfortunately they probably did not realize this fact. They probably believe they were attacking the world's meddler, the nation that gets into everybody's business, and which tries to run other countries' lives. They probably see a nation that's simply money hungry with its primary objective to protect the interests of its multi-national and multi-fingered corporations. What the terrorists, and perhaps many individuals and governments outside the U.S. who feel this way do not realize is that the U.S. is not a mono-cultural, monolithic society that thinks and acts with one mind. The U.S. is perhaps the least ethnocentric and nationalistic country of them all. This is because of its roots, its constitution, and its manufactured birth. It is because this is a place where we have come from every where and been able to unite around a unique constitutional framework that has allowed this extraordinary mixture and melting pot to work, and to work exceptionally well….so well in fact that in 200 short years it has developed into the most influential and powerful place the world has yet seen. Because of this history, its origins and multiculturalism, a look at the U.S. is simply a picture of any country as it moves into the future.

  Realistically the U.S. is the only nation that can effectively maintain and promote peace and stability in an ever confrontational world. Again…. this is so because it's simply all of us from everywhere who have come to make it so….yes, we are all Americans.

  What the terrorists didn't realize was that whatever problems they had, and whichever problems they could not solve by themselves, they would have done a much better job of resolving their problems by becoming a part of this wonderful experience called America. That's what the rest of us did, and that's why the U.S. has been able to attain the status it has achieved, by utilizing the best talents from around the world. Why didn't they understand that you can't fight such facts? What a waste of talent and energy. How could those who felt they were so clever to plan such a terrorist act miss the whole ballgame and not see the light and real picture …such a waste.

  I would like to close this note by including an email I received today …Please read it and understand the essence. Thanks…and remember if you can drag yourself away from the TV please take this opportunity to do some effective market research …after all the market and the U.S. will be back…stronger than ever. And remember wherever we claim to belong ….we are all Americans.

  TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

  This, from a Canadian newspaper, no less, is worth sharing.

       AMERICA: THE GOOD NEIGHBOR.
         
       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:
         
       "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!

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