Help! We're Losing Our National Soul!

The national anthem should be sung in English — not Spanish — President Bush declared Friday, amid growing restlessness over whether to grant legal status to immigrants who are in the United States illegally.

"One of the important things here is that we not lose our national soul," the president exclaimed.

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Q Mr. President, a cultural question for you. There is a version of the National Anthem in Spanish now. Do you believe it will hold the same value if sung in Spanish as in English?

THE PRESIDENT: No I don't, because 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.

(snipped several minutes of questions about Iran, gas prices, Katrina and other stuff)

Q Yes, Mr. President, on Monday, several million illegal immigrants worried about some forms of immigration legislation in the Congress are going to walk off the job and keep their kids home from schools. What is your view of this call for a national boycott on Monday?

THE PRESIDENT: I'm not a supporter of boycotts. I am a supporter of comprehensive immigration. I understand how difficult this issue is for some people here in Washington and around the country, but there is -- my judgment that enforcing our border requires a -- and by the way, I think most Americans agree that we've got to enforce our border. I don't think there's any question about that --

Q Do you think --

THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish, please, Bob, thank you -- that there needs to be interior enforcement, as well. But I recognize it's hard to enforce the border and have interior enforcement if there is a smuggling network that's bringing people across and there's a forgery network that's providing people false documents. And, therefore, I believe a temporary worker program will make it easier to enforce the border, as well as have interior enforcement.

If somebody is coming across to do a job on a temporary basis, they don't need to sneak across. They don't need a coyote to stuff them in the back of an 18-wheeler. They don't need to walk across the desert and risk their lives. And so a rational way to make sure our border is enforced is to have a temporary worker program. And that's what I support.

I think it's very important for people, when they do express themselves, they continue to do so in a peaceful way, in a respectful way -- respectful of how highly charged this debate can become. One of the things that's very important is when we debate this issue that we not lose our national soul. One of the great things about America is that we've been able to take people from all walks of life bound as one nation under God. And that's the challenge ahead of us.

And I look forward to working with members of both political parties to get a bill out of the United States Senate and into conference, which would then mean we have a chance to get a comprehensive bill to my desk. And I want a comprehensive bill, one that enforces the border, one that makes sure that we've got interior enforcement procedures in place that actually work, one that provides a temporary worker process for people, one that does not provide automatic citizenship -- I don't think anybody really wants there to be automatic amnesty for people -- one that allows somebody here to be able to get in -- if they want to be a citizen, to be able to get in line, but not the front of the line but the back of the line.

And that's what I'm for, a comprehensive plan. I think we can get one done if people would set aside politics and focus on what's best for the United States of America.

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manny said:

You should be aware of just how twisted around the President's comments were in that AP story. The "national soul" comment was not in response to the Spanish version of the national anthem as the article implies.

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Rob Lister said:

I'm not sure what you mean.

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Rob Lister said:

I think the term 'national soul' conveys the intended meaning.

Perhaps a better term for the logically equipped might be 'national culture' but even that doesn't convey it better, it's just less baggaged.

In other words, "you left mexico for the U.S., and now you seek to turn us into mexico."

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CFLarsen said:

OK. The official language of the United States is English.

I believe that there is no law about this. If not, let's see Bush push that legislation.

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Rob Lister said:

The US has no official language. The de facto national language is English (or the American version of it).

I'm not sure what good it would do to have an official national language. We're not France and are not going to make laws prohibiting non-english (american?) signs.

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