Oh-way ay-say an-cay you-way ee-say . . .

[Sorry for the lateness of the post; Blogger was having some issues when I tried to post this earlier.]

I couldn’t agree more with Mark Hyman about the issue of the national anthem being sung only in English.

Hyman says not only should the anthem be translated into Spanish (and presumably sung in that language when appropriate) as well as other languages, but that we should do the same with a host of the best examples of American political rhetoric. He reasons that “Maybe if more people around the world read these great works, then maybe, just maybe, we'd see better governments emerge.”

Again, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I agree with Hyman on a deeper level than probably he even intends. The implicit assumption in his conclusion is that words and ideas are the way to transform the world, particularly when it comes to spreading the ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy. As we see on a daily basis in Iraq, invading to promote liberty, occupying to promote freedom, and killing to promote tolerance leave something to be desired, both morally and pragmatically.

The cynical side of me wonders whether or not Hyman would have editorialized in this way had President Bush not been publicly caught shaming himself by pompously declaring that the national anthem doesn’t mean the same thing when sung in Spanish, only to have it revealed that he sang the anthem in Spanish himself many times when courting Hispanic voters (therefore destroying any possibility to take the English-only argument seriously). But that doesn’t diminish the fact that Hyman is right on this one.

Unfortunately, the fact that such an issue is even taking up time being debated in the public sphere is damaging enough. It’s one of the more obvious examples of efforts of the right wing to avoid talking about issues that truly matter.

Just take a look at this week in the Senate. Rather than dealing with the umpteen real issues that affect the daily lives of Americans, we have the most august legislative assembly in the world spending time talking about non-issues covered with a patina of faux populism (flag desecration, gay marriage) or taking up issues at the behest of a handful of the uber-rich, again covered with a patina of faux populism (repeal of the estate tax).

I agree with Hyman on the issue of the national anthem. What I hope is that if he’s serious about his concern about real issues (such as his plea a couple of weeks ago for a comprehensive energy policy), he will stand up and chastise his fellow conservatives for engaging in ineffectual pandering to a sliver of their base rather than leading and doing the work of the people.

And that’s The Counterpoint.

Hyman Index: 0.75 (A new low! Huzzah!)