That's right- the government- the "conservative" government no less- is planning to strike a committee to decide if Canada should change the lyrics to the national anthem. (See story here)
These are the current lyrics:
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Apparently the line "in all they sons command" is offending some women, and being the oh so tolerant nation that we are, we need to change the line to something more gender neutral.Argh!
I can't even talk about how stupid this is, because it makes me so angry. Our anthem is our anthem. We don't change it just because some misguided idiot feminist with a chip on her shoulder feels left out.
I am beyond disappointed that Prime Minister Harper's government even contemplated this, let alone struck a committee to study it. How many taxpayer dollars are we wasting on this? Hmmm?
On the plus side, they did strike a committee so this is going nowhere fast.
But to all my Canadian readers, please call/e-mail or mail your MP and tell them this is ridiculous and we don't want our anthem changed.
UPDATE: March 7, 2010 9:38 pm
Let this be a lesson to me- when I want to write a post, but get too busy to write it for a few days, I should verify that the facts haven't changed.
Because on this post they did- see here - the government heard from Canadians and decided they wouldn't change the anthem. Praise be to God! That's one of the first smart things they've done in awhile.
A thanks to Fr. Tim for giving me the heads up on this. And some wisdom from Fr. Tim's seminary days- "God so loved the world, that he did not send a committee"
God Bless!
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1 comment:
Sounds familiar. Up till about 1984 Australia's national anthem began "Australia's sons let us rejoice..." when the Federal Government in a fit of trendiness changed it to "Australians all let us rejoice...".
On an unrelated topic, they also left in the line describing us as "girt by sea" which my American wife finds endlessly amusing!
If it makes you feel any better, we also get to go through our own fit of national (progressive) angst every January 26, asking if we should drop the Union Jack from our flag and boot the Crown from our constitution.
Stephen
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