Okay, this tempest in a teapot over the national anthem being sung in English is absolutely killing me. A Spanish language version of the national anthem was released a few days ago by a British music producer. That sparks protests by right wing bloggers, for some bizarre reason. Seeking desperately to win the jingo vote back, President Bush bravely stands up and says that he is opposed to singing the national anthem in Spanish because, he says, "One of the important things here is that we not lose our national soul."
Then it comes out that, during his campaign for the presidency in 2000, Bush actively campaigned among Hispanic groups and sang the national anthem himself in Spanish many times and that at his inauguration in 2000, he had singer Jon Secada sing "America the Beautiful" in Spanish. And where did they get the words for that scurrilous attempt to destroy our "national soul" by daring to sing the national anthem in Spanish? Maybe from the US State Department website.
To make the contradictions even more perfect, Laura Bush does a TV interview with CNN and says, "I don't think there's anything wrong with singing [the national anthem] in Spanish." The interviewer then asked her if she disagrees with her husband on that and she says, not 30 seconds after saying there's nothing wrong with singing it in Spanish, "I think it should be sung in English, of course." It takes a special kind of braindead, doesn't it? You can watch the video here.
If there's anything funnier than watching politicians contradict themselves, it's watching them contradict themselves while frantically and desperately trying to turn a completely stupid and irrelevant non-issue into something they can gain a political advantage with. This is buffoonery at its most priceless. These are the times when one longs for an HL Mencken to skewer such idiocy. It all reminds me of the Texas official who declared, during the fight over and English-only bill, "If English is good enough for our Lord Jesus Christ, it's good enough for me."
Some people feel, as I do, that the song is being used as a political ploy by illeagal immegrants who have been here for awhile and choose not to intergrate into America.
How do some of you get from "a Spanish version of national anthem released" to "immigrants choose not to integrate"?
Sure, a common language is practical, but there are also countries where several languages are spoken and many people are not fluent in the most common one. It's not the end of the world.
It takes a special kind of braindead, doesn't it?
No, just the ordinary kind of shortsighted, frantic, cowardly pandering.
I find the flap over singing the anthem in a different language completely bizarre for other reasons. Three of my four immigrant grandparents became fluent in English, while the fourth never did. Regardless of their own language skills, these two hard-working couples raised, collectively, thirteen bilingual kids. I'd love to hear someone sing the national anthem in Italian or Polish; I'd consider it a tribute to my resourceful grandparents. (Sadly, I don't speak either language myself.)
The small-mindedness of these people never ceases to amaze me.
It's work... nay, it's HARD work being that hypocritical and stupid at the same time.
I actually remember it as "If English is good enough for Jesus of Nazareth, it's good enough for our schoolchildren" (concerning bilingual education). But heck, there's more than one clueless wingnut in the world, so maybe they're both right. I like mine because of the "of Nazareth" (which is, I believe, in the Middle East somewhere).
What's sad is not only that these things happen, but that we're just not even surprised anymore.
YAY election year distractionary campaign talking points are coming in at expected speeds!
Any day now the flood of Gay Marriage and video game violence stories should be hitting the airwaves and newsstands.
screw Bush.
That said, it can be an educational and enlightening experience to live in a country/area where a significant proportion of the population is made up of immigrants who are unable and seemingly unwilling to communicate with you due to their decision not to learn the country's colloquial tongue. I've encountered that in a couple of countries (and no, I'm not counting the US).
It's not good. Not good for solidarity. Not good for communication. Not good for much of anything except ensuring that those immigrants and their children remain second class citizens. It's not just the language but a host of other social and economic problems that come along with it.
It is possible to learn your mother tongue and English. I managed it just fine. Heck, in her 50's my grandma managed it when she moved in with us for a few years. And she never even made it to middle school when she was a kid.
I've always made a point of learning the language of any country I'll be spending an extended period of time in. That's why I polished up my mother tongue before going to visit last summer. That's why I learned french. That's why I'm learning portuguese. It's a matter of respect and pragmatism.
Hard to be united when you don't know what your neighbor is saying.
Wow, this is almost as silly as Bush Sr's. fake outrage about flag-burning. (But he's NOT A WIMP like his dad was, nosireebob...)
Many people I've talked to said they don't mind the song
being sung in the Spanish language ( as it is written).
Inserting the words "My people fight on" and
"The time has come to break the chains" can be construed to be possessive (turning our historical song into their song) and may seem to be antagonistic.
Some people feel, as I do, that the song is being used as a political ploy by illeagal immegrants who have been here for awhile and choose not to intergrate into America.
I can't imagine anyone bothering to have an opinion on the song being sung in Spanish, either negative or positive. It's a completely irrelevant non-issue.
I have an invisible friend (someone you know online but haven't met face-to-face) in Arizona who says that hearing the Star-Spangled Banner sung in Navajo is extremely moving.
By the third generation 100% of immigrants in the US can speak English. People need to give the first generation or two a break. It is hard for some people to learn a new language.
I also find the issue personally odd. I am Pennsylvania Dutch. My anscestors were here before the revolution. They spoke German. Many of my (admittedly more distant) releatives still do. Where did this English only crap come from? Yes, they all speak English too (c.f. the third generation rule).
This country was settled by people who spoke a variety of different languages -- Spanish in the SW, German in PA, Dutch in NY, and French in LA (and those are only the ones that were around on day 1). Vibrant and distinct cultures exist today all over America. It is part of what makes America great. It is the way America has worked for more than 225 years.
Now we're going to get all nationalistic and racist because a bunch of Anglo-americans can't be bothered with learning how to communicate with someone who doesn't speak English well? That's great for tourism, no? That really helps integrate new immigrants into society, right?
This is something new in America (at least at the national level), and it is a sign of a sick, insular society.
The emails in response to Nick Gillispie's defense of musical expression on O'Reilly... hoo-larious. And also tragic.
what's a sick sign is people assuming that the desire for a common language stems from either racism or nationalism. It's simply practicality. I'm not white, English isn't my mother tongue, and the people I run with tend to be so diverse that at any given time we'd be poster children for a multiculturalism poster.
And the problem is that in this world, at this time, 2 generations to be able to communicate with your neighbor is kind of a long time. Hence why I brought up other countries where it's more of a social and economic problem than it is here (it admittedly ain't much of one yet). Things get ugly.
I'm the son of immigrants myself, and the way I see it, the onus should be on the immigrant to integrate, not those already living there.
No one's saying 'speak english or die.' Well, at least the rational voices aren't. But we are saying you should make hte effort to become a part of the society you're moving into.
I'm every inch an Indian. I'm not white-washed in the least. Learning English didn't compromise my cultural identity. So quit the straw men and the 'multiculturalism' argument.
In fairness to Laura Bush, I suspect what she may have meant was "I think the Anthem ought to be sung in English, but don't see any reason to get upset at it being sung in other languages." Which is half right, at least.
The State Department website also has it in French
http://www.amb-usa.fr/az/h/hymne.htm
Possibly other languages, but my Russian isn't up to
finding it and I haven't a chance in Arabic, Chinese,
or Persian.
Okay, that was almost physically painful. By the way, did you notice how few of those writers seemed to have a grasp on the English language themselves? I can't take it.
Emulating the president, no doubt.
"It takes a special kind of braindead, doesn't it?"
Perhaps ... then again, perhaps not. There are additional facts that shed a somewhat different light on the subject.
The State Department website does indeed have Spanish lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner. And in numerous other languages, no doubt, though I didn't bother to look. If you look closely, you'll see that the State Dept version appears to be a more or less direct translation of the original to Spanish.
On the other hand, the version just released, which caused all the ruckus, has lyrics which may be seen here.
If you look very, very closely and apply all the skills in logic and observation which you've developed over so many years of dissecting creationists, you might observe that the second version isn't exactly a direct translation. You might notice that it contains political statements of a type that the original does not. You might even conclude that it was written specifically as a tool to be used in the current debate over immigration law -- on the side of the illegals, and against any attempts to secure the US borders.
Note that the lyrics have been changed a little. If you translate the Spanish lyrics back to English it comes out:
"All Your Base Are Belong To Us"
wolfwalker-
In that case, the President should not have said that it shouldn't be sung in Spanish lest we risk our "national soul"; he should have objected to this particular translation. But he didn't do that. He said that it shouldn't be sung in Spanish, despite the fact that he himself has sung it in Spanish many, many times (and yet, our "national soul" remaints, presumably, intact). Either way you slice it, it's an idiotic response to a non-issue.