User Reviews

I saw something incredible today - this 1948 film short, "The Friendship Train". This should be required viewing for every ideologue out there who defames America's role in the world as that of an interloper and imperialist. I know, I know, it won't help to change some people's minds, but this little picture shows America and Americans at their best. It records the efforts to extend a hand of charity to the citizens of Western Europe, primarily France and Italy, still suffering from the privations brought on by the second World War. Starting in Los Angeles with a mere eight box cars loaded with food, the train traveled East and added car after car from stops along the way to the throngs of cheering crowds who got behind the effort in a truly heroic way. By the time it reached New York City, the combined effort of Americans across the country resulted in a total of two hundred seventy box cars loaded with food for hungry recipients overseas. It was with a similar reaction that the French and Italians heralded the arriving cargo, the sight of Europeans triumphantly waving American flags in addition to those of their own countries a spectacular one. It's a shame the world has such a short memory, and that American exceptionalism is viewed with such scorn in so many corners of the globe today. And yet there is no doubt that Americans would respond the same way again, the way they always do in the face of every possible disaster known to Man.