"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."
He was also quoted as saying that "One of the important things here is that we not lose our national soul."
This gets to the heart of an issue that has come up a number of times in the past year: what makes a citizen? Last fall, the British instituted a test for British citizenship. It clearly focused on cultural issues. The French are still struggling with "Frenchness" in the wake of the riots that rocked Paris and other cities. For them, too, citizenship is rooted in cultural issues. If one walks like a Frenchman and, most importantly, talks like a Frenchman, then one must be a Frenchman. The Dutch, too, have addressed the issue, requiring prospective citizens from non-Western countries to view a video that features bare-breasted women, kissing gays, and other things typical in Holland that the unenlightened might find hard to tolerate. The Dutch want then to be sure they know what they are getting into.
The test of American citizenship, however, has not been cultural, but political. The prospective citizen is tested on his or her knowledge of the American political system. Do they know how many branches of government there are? How are treaties approved? And so forth.
The test, however, is only administered in English, which points to a tension that has been inherent in our view of ourselves since the United States came to be. We view ourselves as melting pot, encompassing people of all cultures, yet we have a culture distinctly our own, easily recognizable around the world.
This is the tension that "Nuestro Himno" addresses. Must Americans sing it in English? Mark Krikorian, head of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, asked, rhetorically: "Would the French accept people singing the La Marseillaise in English as a sign of French patriotism? Of course not." President Bush, of course, echoed that sentiment.
Yet we are not French, and the essence of Americanness includes tolerance, at a minimum, of other cultures. Americans, true Americans, have spoken German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and myriad other languages. This country is unique in its ability to accept people of other cultures as our own. A true American can sing the Star-Spangled Banner in any language.
