True Friends

There's much talk around the world about how much "everyone" hates us. We know this is complete crap of course, but when we hear an account of an individual member of the plurality that supports us it can still be quite moving.

Any North American Hockey fan, perhaps even the Europeans, know Don Cherry. Apparently he's under fire in the Great White North for questioning the manliness of French-Canadian and European hockey players for wearing visors over their face when they play. (He contends that it leads to more violence since the players are less fearful of injury, and the stats appear to back him up.)

The reason I blogged this though is for what he said about America after a Montreal crowd booed our national anthem. The Journal writes...

When Montreal fans booed the U.S. national anthem at a hockey game last March in the wake of the Iraq invasion, Mr. Cherry responded by apologizing to his "American friends." Goaded by his co-host, Mr. Cherry lamented those who wouldn't offer "moral help" for a neighbor who'd always been first in line whenever Canada found itself in trouble. But this is the part that, when I read it out loud, brought me to tears: "And when they needed us," he went on, "and all they said, all they needed was to say, 'We back you.' They didn't want any troops. Just say we back you. When the chips were down we turned our back on them."

A true friend may not always be in a position to help you, but he will never ever do anything to hurt you. Sometimes, as in Cherry's case, that means standing up to one's neighbors and saying, "I'm sorry, you are wrong."

Posted by JohnGalt at February 13, 2004 10:04 AM