The Anthem in Spanish Nonsense
Bush Enters Anthem Fight on Language
By JIM RUTENBERG
President Bush signaled that he stands with conservatives
on the Spanish version of the national anthem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/29/washington/29bush.html?th&emc=th
..................
One of my regrets is that I did not learn a bit of Spanish until I was too old really to be able to command this lucid language -- I audited my way through 3 semesters and the entire grammatical structure so that I could properly pronounce my students' names and follow simple things posted in Spanish, etc. The mother of two of my nieces is also a Puerto Ricana. But I am too shy to speak it.
Personally I have much enjoyed hearing the Spanish rendition of our rather tired and unsingable-in-English version of our national anthem -- a poor choice from the start compared with some of our more feisty patriotic alternatives. In Spanish it comes alive.
But let's get real here. The bulk of our Spanish speaking population -- 12-13% of Americans -- was incorporated by rather brutal aggressive wars and/or territory grabs, e.g. the steal of the South West during the War of 1848: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_War
And our grab of Puerto Rico from the Spanish in 1898 was similarly an aggressive expropriation. If anything Anglo-speakers should be obliged to learn Spanish so that they can properly communicate with their fellow Americans -- and also with the bulk of our south to the border neighbors in Latin America who have also suffered innumerable interferences in their lives since the Monroe Doctrine was introduced! The U.S. has destabilized nearly every government down there at one point or another, assassinated leaders, and as a last resort, sent in the Marines again and again. See John Perkins C.I.A. Confessions:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251
We are, thus, not loved there as witnessed by the string of recent elections which have exposed our brutalities. Speaking Spanish, let alone singing it, is now in our best interest if we are to win any friends and influence people there who control things that we desperately need that are being redirected now towards China.
And needless to say in this new world order with its globalized economy we need as many multi-lingual Americans as we can muster. Most educated Europeans command one or more additional languages. Only in America are our kids dumbed down and deprived of the enriched experience of learning about other cultures through first hand command of their languages. Needless to say some of the European countries are themselves multi-lingual (e.g. Switzerland and Belgium) and most Nordics command English as well as their own languages.
So Bush is just another of our national dummies, although he, himself, does speak Spanish. What idiocy wasting our time drawing our attention away from far more important things with this typically ugly little American mass media diversion -- steeped in racism. Cannot these characters -- from Bush down to Fox news -- see the damage they are doing to our nation in the eyes of the rest of the world? Will we next be threatening Hugo (pronounced 'oogo' as Spanish has no 'h' sound) with tactical 'nooculer' weapons?
Personally I greatly appreciate whatever enlivened versions of our dour national anthem. I am told that some of my ancestors arrived at Massachusetts Bay as first decade pilgrims, but speaking as an Anglo (member of America's only third largest minority group), I am also for linguistic experimentation. No reason why we should try to ram English down the throats of all -- particularly if we are not willing to share and expand our own cultural awareness in comparable ways.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
By JIM RUTENBERG
President Bush signaled that he stands with conservatives
on the Spanish version of the national anthem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/29/washington/29bush.html?th&emc=th
..................
One of my regrets is that I did not learn a bit of Spanish until I was too old really to be able to command this lucid language -- I audited my way through 3 semesters and the entire grammatical structure so that I could properly pronounce my students' names and follow simple things posted in Spanish, etc. The mother of two of my nieces is also a Puerto Ricana. But I am too shy to speak it.
Personally I have much enjoyed hearing the Spanish rendition of our rather tired and unsingable-in-English version of our national anthem -- a poor choice from the start compared with some of our more feisty patriotic alternatives. In Spanish it comes alive.
But let's get real here. The bulk of our Spanish speaking population -- 12-13% of Americans -- was incorporated by rather brutal aggressive wars and/or territory grabs, e.g. the steal of the South West during the War of 1848: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_War
And our grab of Puerto Rico from the Spanish in 1898 was similarly an aggressive expropriation. If anything Anglo-speakers should be obliged to learn Spanish so that they can properly communicate with their fellow Americans -- and also with the bulk of our south to the border neighbors in Latin America who have also suffered innumerable interferences in their lives since the Monroe Doctrine was introduced! The U.S. has destabilized nearly every government down there at one point or another, assassinated leaders, and as a last resort, sent in the Marines again and again. See John Perkins C.I.A. Confessions:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251
We are, thus, not loved there as witnessed by the string of recent elections which have exposed our brutalities. Speaking Spanish, let alone singing it, is now in our best interest if we are to win any friends and influence people there who control things that we desperately need that are being redirected now towards China.
And needless to say in this new world order with its globalized economy we need as many multi-lingual Americans as we can muster. Most educated Europeans command one or more additional languages. Only in America are our kids dumbed down and deprived of the enriched experience of learning about other cultures through first hand command of their languages. Needless to say some of the European countries are themselves multi-lingual (e.g. Switzerland and Belgium) and most Nordics command English as well as their own languages.
So Bush is just another of our national dummies, although he, himself, does speak Spanish. What idiocy wasting our time drawing our attention away from far more important things with this typically ugly little American mass media diversion -- steeped in racism. Cannot these characters -- from Bush down to Fox news -- see the damage they are doing to our nation in the eyes of the rest of the world? Will we next be threatening Hugo (pronounced 'oogo' as Spanish has no 'h' sound) with tactical 'nooculer' weapons?
Personally I greatly appreciate whatever enlivened versions of our dour national anthem. I am told that some of my ancestors arrived at Massachusetts Bay as first decade pilgrims, but speaking as an Anglo (member of America's only third largest minority group), I am also for linguistic experimentation. No reason why we should try to ram English down the throats of all -- particularly if we are not willing to share and expand our own cultural awareness in comparable ways.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 10:25 AM
1 Comments:
If they come to our country, they should speak our language! These people are overthrowing the American way of life by taking it over from the inside! They lost those wars fair and square! Next I suppose you want us all to give everything back to the Redskins!
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