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Star-Spangled Silliness

by James W. Harris

Anti-immigration forces went ballistic recently about the hit song "Nuestro Himno," a Spanish-language adaptation of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Indeed, the weirdly fierce hysteria over the song even reached the White House, where President Bush felt compelled to assert that "the national anthem ought to be sung in English."

Some prominent Congressional doofuses quickly went further. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), joined by a gaggle of other senators, introduced a nonbinding resolution proclaiming that the national anthem, along with various other patriotic statements and songs, "should be recited or sung in English."

Amazingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the U.S. Senate quickly *passed* it -- unanimously. A similar measure has been introduced in the House.

It's nice to know that, even though Congress can't be troubled to deal with out- of-control spending, a frightening federal assault on fundamental civil liberties, and similar minor matters, they can always be counted upon to take quick action on the really *important* issues.

Now, the rest of the story.

It turns out that there were no less than four Spanish translations of "The Star-Spangled Banner" already on the U.S. State Department's Web site when all this controversy erupted. Indeed, the U.S. government published a Spanish version as far back as 1919. Versions in German, French, Yiddish and other languages were commissioned by the government decades ago and are available, too.

So it seems that, for nearly a century, the U.S. government has had no trouble at all with the idea of folks singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in other languages. Indeed, the government has funded it and encouraged it.

Further, there are eyewitness accounts that President Bush himself, while running in 2000, sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish to woo Hispanic voters. Bush now denies that, saying his Spanish is so poor he would be incapable of doing that. (Given his well-publicized troubles with the English language, one is inclined to believe him.)

As for Senator Lamar Alexander, a few years ago, when bilingual education was more popular with voters, he was a strong opponent of "English only" policies. Indeed, in 1995 he stated: "My dream is that every child in America grows up learning two languages." Just don't try *singing* in more than one of them, kids.

And what about America's first national motto, still enshrined on the national seal -- E Pluribus Unum? When are we going to do something about that?

Finally, someone needs to point out to our rulers that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by an avowed socialist, Francis Bellamy, who said he hoped it would help American schoolchildren embrace state socialism. Resolutions, anyone?

(Sources: http://www.reason.com/links/links050806.shtml

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060504102609990019&ncid=NWS00 010000000001

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo54.html

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1281 )

From THE LIBERATOR ONLINE, May 10, 2006 / Vol. 11, No. 10

 

 


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