At Least They Know

The Canadians have something figured out. We never have.

We kept hearing, during their Olympic gold rush, their national anthem. So simple. So in touch with who they are.

Okay, a little sexist: "True patriot love in all thy sons command." Try some possible substitutes for "sons": "Daughters," "dudes", "sons and daughters", "people", "persons". Won't work. Throws it all off.

And you can actually sing it. Not like ours, where trained people are needed because some notes go through the roof. And they don't always remember the words.

That's because our national anthem commemorates a battle we lost in a war we'd rather forget. After all, the White House and Capitol were burned to the ground.

The British were shelling Fort McHenry in Baltimore, too, and somebody noticed that they missed the flagpole. Big deal. Were they actually aiming at it? Did Francis Scott Key write that poem to salvage what was left?

And the Canadian anthem celebrates the people and the land, unlike ours, which celebrates our flag and whatever it means. It's difficult to unify around it because both parts of it deal with the states, not the union.

Okay, the whole thing is supposed to, but its meaning continues to be discussed, including by people who, in the name of something some people believe it means, damage or destroy it and let everybody know while they're doing it.

Let's end the discussion, say some. There oughta be a law. Nope, says the Supreme Court.

Put it into the Constitution, say others. Nope. Too difficult to do that. And too much trouble to enforce. Better to note the stupidity with which so few others criticize it.

Just say boo. And go fly your own flag in a way that shows the right attitude toward it. So many more do that, anyhow.

There has never been a pandemic of wanton flag destruction. In a free land where so many could do it, so few actually have. That stands as its own comment.

And let's find a national anthem that celebrates this country's people and its land, something around which liberals and conservatives have found nothing to criticize. Impossible? Not at all.

We have one: "America the Beautiful." I've never met anybody who has ever had a problem with this song representing all of us.

It's easy to sing. And it'll work better when history teachers try to get kids to memorize the words for their next test. That kind of standardization goes without challenge.

We can learn from Canada, if we'd only listen. Listen to what they sing and how. It's about who they are. At least they know.