Common Sense Prevails

I thought not to discuss the demands to change the lyrics of the national anthem. It was so stupid an idea it left me too paralyzed to jot any opinion about it. Thankfully, Canadians spoke out and Harper listened. I hope Harper was merely humouring the idiots (including a McGill University professor) who actually advocated such a frivolous notion:

Earlier in the week, the throne speech mentioned a proposal to modify a lyric in the Canadian anthem. It promised to look into the wording of 'O Canada' to make it more gender neutral, suggesting the line, "all thy sons command" could be replaced.

 As usual, this comes by the minds of people who pull history out of context in the name of "modernizing" something. To go with the "times." My wife, a teacher, who has little patience for such things, made a good point. "Men are playing bigger roles in the family now. Should we change Mother Nature to Father nature now?"

Ignorance of history is not an excuse. Worse, there seems to be a built-in assumption that anything from the past is "outdated." I remember reading a comment from a blogger commenting on a political blog he couldn't understand what the fuss was all about the Founding Fathers. To him, their ideas were irrelevant and "quaint."

The English version of the anthem was written back in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir. The line originally read, "Thou doust us all command."

The writer's grandson, Steve Simpson, says the word "son" is not about gender -- but a reference to a patriotic command from a maternal goddess.

Harper is an intelligent person. He is a student of history. I can only hope he knew all this.

Projecting our views on the past is not only a misguided and pointless game, it's patently arrogant. The anthem is part of tradition and tradition should still hold some currency in our lives.

Let it go.