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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Harder still to listen too. You can't go to a baseball game w/o some amateur spiking a four octave arpeggio that seems to take 3 minutes. So if Spanish or Klingon or haX0r will make it go faster I'm all for it. Hell, write it in Kazoo if you want.
Since at least my own high school days, Latin students have been learning and reciting the Latin version of the pledge of allegiance. You'll find a grammatically accurate version here (there are a lot of really bad ungrammatical versions floating around as well):
http://www.mythfolklore.net/harriuspotter/supp/misc.htm
What's next, will Bill O'Reilly start one of his jihads against the Junior Classical League, and vow to bring horror into the lives of anyone who says the Pledge of Allegiance in anything but Ammurrikin?
For a 40 year old version of the national anthem that is everything about language and nothing about language, I have two words for you: Jimi Hendrix.
If we played Mr. Hendrix's version for several days in a row, these anal retentive types would probably tighten up so much that all the other parts of the body would start floating and would demonstrate why the asshole is always in charge. And then maybe they'd have an apoplectic fit and then we'd have a chance to get someone with two brains to rub together in office.
Call me crazy, but the question asked in the survey doesn't seem to get at what the survey taker meant. I bet the majority of respondents were considering that question in the context of moments of official state business. Essentially, nobody cares how people want to sing it most of the time but when we're singing it at the Olympics or we're singing it at the Inauguration or other times when the country is 'on display', people want to hear it in English. With that caveat, the answers make a lot more sense. Many many many people like the tradition the way we currently practice it. Why would they want to change?
I really don't think that 70% of Americans are ligua-phobes. Isn't this just another excuse for a wedge issue?
To assume that no one (or no American) should care that their National Anthem be sung in Spanish is an outrage and very offending. I'm a Southern Democrat (with more northern ideologies), but this whole immigration thing is absolutely offensive. Wycleff Jean just put that out as a publicity stunt and also to sell it. He does not really care, he's a musician and needs money.
Saying that having our (The United States) National Anthem in Spanish is an insult to the founders of our country and the situation surrounding its (The Anthems) founding. For one this American will be damned if he ever allows his children to be forced to sing the Anthem in Spanish or have this policy applied to him in any way. I'm an American and my national language is English. If you want to have your kids sing the National Anthem in Spanish grab a compass and walk south until you see a sign that says "Bienvenidos a Mexico."
This is the most insulting article I have ever read on this website and you all usually have material that addresses my concerns, for shame.
A Spanish-language version of the National Anthem was commissioned and became official in 1919?
That Bush himself sang the national Anthem in Spanish several times during the 2000 election campaign?
This is pandering, pure and simple, and it's a way for Republicans to skirt the real issue, which is how to process 11 million people who are in the country illegally, and how to keep another 11 million from streaming into the country from all over the world. It also begs the question about security; if this many hard-working, otherwise law-abiding foreigners were able to come here, presumably undetected, who else has been able to come here?
Milt Shook
I could care less about any anthem, but that doesn't mean I don't understand why people are upset over a Spanish-language version (which by the way isn't the United States national anthem translated into spanish but a different song altogether). Now that I said I understand and repect people's feelings over the National anthem and all things red, white and blue please allow me the option of not siging the song, putting my hand over my heart or standing to pledge alegence to the flag.
One of the most controversial anthems was done by Jose Feleciano before a World Series game in Detroit in 1968. At the time it was widely panned but now it's a very famous and well looked upon version.
Be careful how quick you are to condemn something, it might just be a classic one day.
It never ceases to amaze me how elitist and un-American our very own prez sounds when casually talking about anything from brush clearing to "matters of national security" and now to what the "national language" should be. Never mind how hypocritical it all is coming from this guy.
I remember in elementary school, my 3rd grade teacher broke out a chalkboard sized world map that highlighted each country's official language, religions and currencies, along with the style of ruling government. The US didn't have any official language or religion and many of us asked why this was. "Because we're free to choose whatever language we want to speak or religion we want to practice and therefore the government doesn't demand that you believe in any one religion or learn any one language. We wouldn't be as free as we are now if they did" was the repeated answer. This has always stuck with me and as a result instilled great pride within for my country, this simple statement of our nations' freedoms held in contrast with what the majority of the worlds' were. As young as I was, I understood what I was taught and it made me proud to live here.
So despite our leaders' best efforts at converting us all to white Jeezus saved English speakers, it's a little known fact apparently there IS no official language in this country. If someone wants to sing, record and distribute our national anthem in Swahili, Elvish, Spanish or any other language they have the protected right as a citizen of this country to do just that. Yet after seeing this excuse for leadership, our blue blooded prez who hails from a state where English is increasingly spoken less than Spanish, sounds off on why our national anthem is for English speakers only, I began to wonder where exactly do I live nowadays. Physically, I'm no more than 60 miles south of where that 3rd grade class was and yet these times make it feel like I'm in a different hemisphere all together.
Bush's comments sounded more like someone who never left Mammy's back porch nor bothered to get educated on what principles this country stands for before assuming a role as leader of anything. To see the comment at the end of this WR entry stating he has sung our nation's anthem in Spanish to court voters actually caused heart palpitations.. There is no low too low or too depth too far down the rabbit hole for this kind of lead balloon leadership. It takes Colbert cajones or vast swaths of ignorance to think comments such as this would go unnoticed and not contribute to the ever widening rift between the uninformed and uneducated leadership and the rest of us. I'm not sure I've got it in me for two more months of his un-American tyranny, never mind 2+ more years!
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Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
