National Anthem to be Recorded in Spanish

According to an AP story, Mexican, Puerto Rican and other pop musicians are planning a recording of the US National Anthem in Spanish. They hope to show solidarity with undocumented immigrants who are demanding some of the same privileges and rights previously held only by legal residents and citizens.

Personally, I am pleased to have loyalty and patriotism for this country demonstrated in any way and in any language possible, Spanish included. Let the Pledge of Allegiance be spoken in Spanish, too! Translations of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence are good as well.

However (and you knew there was going to be a "however," didn't you!), insofar as national anthems, such as "The Star-Spangled Banner," are designed to affirm a common unity among the citizen-members of a nation, it seems somewhat of a self-defeating goal to have some US Americans singing it in one language and another group singing it in another. What are we turning into, Canada! lol

Seriously, as I have said many, many times, it is not diversity that unites a people. Diversity always divides a people. That which they share in common is what unites them.

Language is, of course, the greatest "divider" that there is. The biblical story of the Tower of Babel is, of course, the most famous illustration of this truth.

People who cannot communicate with one another are, by definition, divided, not united.

I hope that there will be no singing of the "National Anthem" in Spanish at the beginning of any baseball or football games. There are so few things that unite us as a nation that it would be a shame to trade one of them away for just one more symbol of our differences.