Asked at a news briefing in the Rose Garden whether he believed the anthem would have the same value in Spanish as it does in English, (President) Bush said flatly, "No, I don't"
"And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English," Bush said. "And they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."
Accordingly, if you want to worship Christ and sing the Hallelujah Chorus, it follows, you must sing it in German.
Nuestro Himno (Our Hymn) is just fine by me. I'd like to hear it sung in Arabic, Hebrew, French, Italian and Swahili, in Tagalog, Japanese, Mandarin and Russian.
If you don't know what this is all about, read a paper.
And post your thoughts here on the following question after voting in this
Spanish Language U.S. National Anthem
4 comments:
With apologies, I've moved comments from a previous thread to preserve them, and deleted the original posting. Please vote in the poll, if only to help us decide if we want to incorporate such into NA Confidential - Thanks.
At 11:32 AM, John L. Alton II said...
AMEN! There is a well-known saying that suits this to a tee.
"If you're going to walk the walk...
...talk the talk!"
Bush's comment is another attempt to raise his sagging 30 something percent approval rating. Say what they want to hear..if not, send Dick Cheney out on a hunting trip!
At 12:28 PM, The New Albanian said...
No, it is not disrespectful.
At 3:34 PM, New Alb Annie said...
I don't think it's disrespectful at all.
Maybe we should all be speaking a Native American language rather than English, since that was the original spoken language here.
I have little patience with the attitude that immigrants must become "Americanized". We all came here from someplace else, or our ancestors did. If this country is supposed to be all about personal freedom, then that freedom should include speaking whatever language an individual prefers.
At 4:35 PM, Brandon W. Smith said...
I think you can create free webpolls at www.misterpoll.com and link to it from here.
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I still can't figure out how it is disrespectful to sing the national anthem in Spanish, especially given the number of Spanish speakers in this country and our rich Spanish heritage. How soon people forget that we are a nation of immigrants. When people stop wanting to come here, our economy is doomed (and here is where I interject a cheap plug for Richard Florida's The Flight of the Creative Class).
At 4:48 PM, Brandon W. Smith said...
NPR has a nice story about the topic here (along with a link to the song):
NPR News
At 5:44 PM, G.Coyle said...
My two cents worth is: As long as someone is singing, not fighting, who cares whether they can carry a tune or say english words...it's singing already! More singing!
To answer the original question, NO I do not consider it disrespectful to sign our National Anthem in one's native tounge!
As for the rest of the story, visit my blog later for how I really feel.
Ceece, I acknowledge some concern about the modification of the lyrics, which is more than minor. But then, do any of us know the second and third verses of the anthem? Is it not disrespectful of all of us not to sing those verses?
Making a tempest out of this is where the hypocrisy rises.
But then, it wasn't our national anthem when it was written, and the melody wasn't attached, either. Lots of crocodile tears from the president over a melody that served as an English drinking song.
And Lloyd, your fat fingers inadvertently raised a compelling point. You typed "sign" for "sing," pointing out that no one ever objected to the national anthem being signed!
Please forgive MY misspellings in the original post, too.
I do not believe it disrespectful to sing any song in any other language if the intent is to try and translate the words as closely as possible to preserve the meaning.
But if you are going to change the words drastically with some other intent, then it becomes disrespectful.
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