Our World

Spanish National Anthem

One item that was large in the news on Friday night was the release of a new version of the Star Spangled Banner that is written in Spanish so those who speak poor English are able to participate in singing our National Anthem. There is a lot of criticism to this idea because people believe that those from other countries need to learn our National Anthem. My opinion falls on this side as well. If someone from another country is coming to the United States they need to adjust partly to our way of life. It's okay to practice parts of their culture and share it with others, but we are not going to adapt our culture for others (i.e. writing our national anthem in a different language). Despite our largely diverse country, other countries are not going to re-write their national anthems just so everyone has a fair chance to sing it and we shouldn't either. The argument for having a Spanish version of our National Anthem so everyone has the chance to participate, especially if they don't speak English well is silly. If someone wants to come to our country from another this is one of our customs that they need to follow and that we don't make adoptions. I do believe that perhaps breaking down the National Anthem and translating parts in a "English as a second language class" to better understand the meaning of the song is okay because it's for learning purposes, but to make it a national item to make it easier for those who don't know our National Anthem is silly.

posted by Kevin Hurd @ 4/30/2006 10:24:00 PM