Canadian lawmakers vote to make national anthem gender neutral

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Can we take God out of it now?

Just do what I do and replace "God" with Zod. I always pretend that General Zod beat Superman.

[Fuzz]

Good idea. I think I'll go with Rod though.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Nah... hypnotoad.

[Hockeyguy15]

I wonder how many times I am going to screw it up while singing it at Flames/Stamps games.

[OMG!WTF!]

"all thy hearts" sounds better.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Yeah, I kind of think anyone who gets this worked up about the anthem on either side needs to reexamine their priorities. As long as I don't have to stand up there and call myself a kitten-sodomizer or something, I really couldn't give a #### what's in the anthem.

Exactly so why is the government even spending their precious time examining this? Really if you are going to start picking out parts and changing them every time a few people complain may as well just trash can the anthem and make a new one rather than #######ize what's been considered one of the better national anthems in the world.

[Fuzz]

It has been changed before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada#Lyric_changes

Frankly I don't really care if they change a couple words. Whatever. Scroll down to the French lyrics though and wow. May as well scrap the whole thing! It's all "he" and "his" and ends with The battle cry: "For Christ and King!"

[redforever]

Andrew Coyne summarizes it very well.

Synecdoche, the use of the part to stand for the whole, clearly eludes them, as must metaphor, irony and allegory. That a word or phrase might not only be intended to be understood in a way other than its most obvious and literal sense, but might be broadly understood in that same way, must be a mystery to them, as must the notion that a word’s commonly understood meaning might change over time. There is one meaning, rather, in all times and all places.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/na...788/story.html

[PsYcNeT]

Cue drunken louts screaming "THY SONS" at the top of their lungs at sporting events for the next 15 years.

[calumniate]

The whole thing should be revamped. It's too boring when compared to other countries. Then there's the gender, God and colonial parts to deal with

[Ashartus]

Should've just gone back to the original (1908 translation) lyrics - no "thy sons" and no "God keep our land" to bother anyone while at the same time it should work for traditionalists. I'm pretty sure those are the lyrics we sang in school when I was a kid until they made the current lyrics official in 1980.

[CaptainCrunch]

Meh, as much of a traditionalist as I am, I'm fine with updating it. Too bad the update is really clumsy sounding and chances are I'm going to continue to go with the old way.

[Weitz]

Will anyone sing it the new way?

[Tron_fdc]

Better yet, does anyone actually sing it?

I don't. I only sing at karaoke events after 400 beers.

[Nyah]

I sing along when I go to Flames games, and I'll absolutely sing it the new way.

[Huntingwhale]

I don't care if they change it. I'm still singing it the original way it was taught to me and I'll sing it that way till the day I die. In fact, whenever the ''all thy sons command'' line comes around, I'm going to yell out ''sons'' even louder and I hope everyone else does too. I hope I get arrested for it too.

Is ''in all of us command'' even a sentence? It sounds stupid.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I expect the references to God will soon be removed. And eventually, no doubt, the term 'stand on guard' will be deemed too martial. Probably replaced with something like "pledge our hearts to thee."

Not sure why anyone cares one way or another. People never sing the anthem anymore. It's not like we still sing it in school every morning. Patriotism itself doesn't really jibe with modern sensibilities. Our grandkids will probably shake their heads at the very notion of an anthem as mindless jingoism. Once you come to believe the past is an era of unrelenting ignorance and folly, it's inevitable these historical relics are abandoned.

They play the anthem every morning at my kids school right when the morning bell rings. I am sure some kids sing it too!

[psyang]

I thought better wording might be "in all our hearts command", but leading the next line with "With glowing hearts" makes the word "hearts" overused.

How about "in all our souls command", or to be even closer to the original, "in all thy souls command"? Seems to roll pretty easily of the tongue.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

I don't care if they change it. I'm still singing it the original way it was taught to me and I'll sing it that way till the day I die. In face, whenever the ''all thy sons command'' line comes around, I'm going to yell out ''sons'' even louder and I hope everyone else does too. I hope I get arrested for it too.

Is ''in all of us command'' even a sentence? It sounds stupid.

That'll teach 'em! That'll teach all of 'em real good!

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by habernac

My kids sing it in class every morning.

Do they go to charter school?