"Our" Anthem?

You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the 'ol Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with the National Anthem... with apologies to the late Jim Croce.

You have no doubt heard -- or at least heard about -- the new rendition of the "Star-Spangled" banner in Spanish called "Nuestro Himno," or, "Our Anthem," which is intended to recognize immigrants seeking a better life in the U.S., but is perceived as the illegal immigrant anthem. Many Spanish-language radio stations are playing it. Many aren't. And many hispanics aren't happy about it. The kicker: this was all the idea of a British music executive.

We have a long list of re-interpretations and botched performances. Jimmi Hendrix's explosive electric-guitar version at Woodstock laced the anthem with an anti-war sentiment. Americans wanted to light a fire under Jose Feliciano when he put his own spin on it before a 1968 baseball game. Steven Tyler sang "home of the Indianapolis 500" instead of "home of the brave." And on a more respectful note, as KOLD News 13 pointed out, members of the Tohono O'odham tribe sang a version of the anthem at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in their language.

This new version goes even further, re-imaging the anthem for Spanish instead of translating it, and adding lyrics. Instead of "O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming," we have "The day is breaking, do you see it? In the light of the dawn? What we so acclaimed at nightfall." One verse says, "Freedom, we are equal./We are brothers, in our anthem." And another version in the works goes even further.

From the AP:

A remix to be released in June contains several lines in English that condemn U.S. immigration laws. Among them: "These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws ... let's not start a war with all these hard workers, they can't help where they were born."

Before you hyperventilate, I remind you we still have our original National Anthem, with the original lyrics. Nobody is taking that away from us. Nobody ever will.

But when you wave dozens of Mexican flags in marches of unity, and you rewrite the lyrics to the National Anthem, this defeats the message of the immigrant-rights movement. Its leaders want you to see all immigrants as Americans. Holding on to your heritage is wonderful and worthy of celebration. But when you pledge your allegiance, when you say you want to be a citizen, it's time to hoist the American Flag and sing the Anthem without taking liberty with the lyrics. The Library of Congress has a Spanish-language translation called "La Bandera." You can still be Mexican. You can still be American. Get over the fear that when you come here to live, when you become a citizen (or even if you don't), you are somehow magically and tragically cleansed of your cultural identity. And even white-bread folks like me, who were born citizens, celebrate our heritage.

"Nuestro Himno" is not an anthem. It is a political statement masquerading as an anthem. Under the First Amendment, sing it if you wish. But don't expect to score points with it. The immigrant-rights movement doesn't need an anthem. It needs a clear message, one that says to people, "we want to be Americans, and we want to be Americans legally. We want to work and be good citizens, and we will condemn those who tarnish us by crossing into the U.S. illegally or threatening our fellow citizens with terrorism." That's a lot of words. Why not write a new anthem for it?