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This article was written in response to Jacob Weisberg’s article, “An oft-mangled Star-Spangled Banner,” that appeared in The Financial Times on May 4, 2006. This article was subsequently submitted to the editor of The Financial Times, who chose not to publish our article.
Jacob Weisberg’s recent article “An oft-mangled Star-Spangled Banner” (May 4, 2006) is a perfect example of the degeneration of patriotism in America.
An overwhelming majority of Americans agree that the National Anthem should be sung in English. I would venture to say that if you polled the French, Britons, Germans, Russians, Chinese, and even the Mexicans, all would agree their own national anthems should not be translated into other languages or changed to accommodate foreign influence. When was the last time you heard the Chinese anthem performed in English or Spanish? Never! How about the French national anthem?
Why don’t we see this more often? National anthems worldwide are generally accepted as sacrosanct. They are a matter of national pride. Most people don’t care if the words make sense or if the music is in a note not conducive to singing by most ordinary citizens. Traditionally, most national anthems, when performed at events such as the Olympics, matters of State, etc., are done so by an orchestra, which plays only the first verse. The absence of the words doesn’t really matter. People still sing the words they know, and they don’t care how they sound, because they are showing their patriotism—a shared concept recognized even by those who don’t know the words.
Obviously, Mr. Weisberg is deficient of patriotism and has never felt a surge of patriotic pride while listening to an orchestra or band perform the Star Spangled Banner as the American flag flutters in the wind. Evidently, he has never felt that same patriotism listening to the National Anthem at the opening of a baseball game—an institution that is as purely American as apple pie. Perhaps he has never been misty eyed on the Fourth of July as the national anthem plays and he considers all that this young country has gone through in its history. Perhaps he has not thought about the millions of lives that have been given in conflict so that we could be free to play the Star Spangled Banner nor has he thought what that flag and that song symbolize.
Most Americans agree that immigrants to the United States should learn English. We shouldn’t be expected to translate our national anthem into another language, just to accommodate them any more than they should be expected to translate their national anthems into English to accommodate us. To suggest that the United States should compromise its national anthem in this way is blasphemous. Mr. Weisberg’s arguments in this article are feeble and clearly indicative of his contempt for the Bush administration. Using the Star Spangled Banner in such a manner as to demean the President is pathetic and contemptuous. To suggest that the Star Spangled Banner should be replaced with a song written by a known communist is even further evidence of Mr. Weisberg’s own communist tendencies and his failure to grasp the concept of patriotism. Perhaps Mr. Weisberg would be better suited in a country like France that shares his contempt for the United States. But wait! The French, after all, are almost as fiercely patriotic as true Americans!
