Oh Say Puede Ver

Right wingers, Rednecks and Xenophobes have been working
themselves into a dither over the new, We Are El Mundo style Spanish-lyrics
version of the National Anthem. As though monolingualism were something
to be proud of rather than a national disgrace. As though a spirit as
beautiful as that expressed by our anthem could anything but enriched
by being translated into other languages.

There have been over 850 versions of the national anthem
recorded over the years,
including a polka version, a kazoo band version, and translations into
at least 20 languages, including Serbo-Croatian and Arabic. Who can forget
the iconic Jimi Hendrix version from Woodstock, captured so vividly on
film and vinyl, denounced at the time as disrespectful and subversive?

How dare they question the sincerity and patriotism of those who sacrifice to make this country, and its anthem, their own?

This is not even the first Spanish language version of
the anthem to appear.On a US
State Department web site (usinfo.state.gov)
there are no less than three different Spanish language versions, and
at the Library
of Congress web site you can peruse a Spanish
language set of sheet music to the US Anthem – from 1917!

What’s next, banning the American Eagle as a possible infection
vector for the Avian flu?