The trilingual National Anthem

Congress has passed a resolution encouraging that the National Anthem be sung only in English. As Los Angeles’ ABC affiliate reports:

The action was apparently sparked by the recent illegal immigration reform battle and the controversy that was caused when supporters of illegal immigrant rights recorded a version of the anthem in Spanish.

However, an unscientific survey of congressional leaders showed that many of them don't know the words to the National Anthem in any language.

Most Americans agree, in a recent poll, nearly seventy percent said that the anthem should be sung only in English.

What is being missed in this entire debate, though, is that the Anthem hasn’t been sung in only English for some time. We just miss the obvious exception because it has become such an ingrained part of society.

Consider this news story, also coming out of Washington, as reported by the Associated Press:

The newly chosen president of Gallaudet University, the nation's only liberal arts college for the deaf, received a no-confidence vote from faculty Monday in a dispute that she said comes down to whether she is "deaf enough" for the job.

The vote, which passed 93-43, is nonbinding. The fate of Jane K. Fernandes rests with the board of trustees, which has said it will not alter its decision to hire her.

Fernandes, who was selected by the board of trustees last week and is scheduled to take office next January, was born deaf but grew up speaking and did not learn American Sign Language until she was 23. Sign language is the preferred way of communicating at 1,900-student Gallaudet.

Essentially, the student body at America’s premiere school for the deaf is insisting that sign language is something so pure as to not simply be considered an alternate form of any given language but, rather, its own language replete with culture and tradition.

And so the question is begged: if sign language is, indeed, its own unique, tradition-rich language, then hasn’t the National Anthem been a bilingual song for some time now? Think about it – there is a translator signing at almost every major sporting event.

Yet no one has raised a fuss over this because the deaf are viewed as being handicapped and, ergo, deserving of lingual assistance. This is all fine, good and proper.

But you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If there is an entire class of people capable of learning to read lips just like most school children learn to speak English, then why are allowing a translation of the National Anthem for groups lacking one of these educations but not groups lacking the other?

And, in viewing the Gallaudet student body, it is clear that at least this group of deaf persons engages in sign language over lip reading and speaking not because they are incapable of learning English but, rather, because they simply don’t want to.

There are no easy answers here – just a lot of questions. But I thought someone should at least correct the record before another round of politicians insisting that the Star Spangled Banner has never been shared in a language other than English.