Thanks for being friends: U.S. visitor

Canada’s national birthday comes just ahead of ours. So here I am, an American, thinking about the ways you all have dropped in on us over the last couple of centuries. When African-Americans needed a destination for the Underground Railroad, you offered a refuge of freedom; when Americans landed on Utah and Omaha beaches in 1944, you were there on Juno; when we had hostages in our embassy in Iran, you were there with a rescue plan. But those episodes in Canadian history aren’t the first I think of.

I was in a youth hostel in Vancouver having afternoon tea with a lady from Ontario and somehow we got on the topic of a very bad day in American history: Sept. 11, 2001. Obviously, all Americans has a memory of that day, of learning about the vicious terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. I wouldn’t have expected this Canadian to have her own memory of that day, but she did.

She said, “I remember I was at work. One of my co-workers hurried up to my desk. She had this look on her face, and she said: ‘America has been attacked! We’re at war!’ ”

That’s how automatic the Canadian response was.

“America has been attacked.” “We’re at war.” And you were there again, with Operation Yellow Ribbon, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

I’m getting tears in my eyes even now, as I write about it.

“America has been attacked.” So: “We’re at war.” That’s far beyond friendship. That’s heroism.

So thanks for everything, Canadians. Enjoy the birthday. Happy Canada Day. Tim Andreasen, Norcross, Ga.