My Own Meme Machine

Now, in response to The Meme Development Project, I have my own little story. A couple of months ago, I was part of a purposeful creation of a meme. We hope it will take off, especially in the upcoming elections.

In May 2006, a friend approached me to contribute to a project wherein he wanted to record the Star Spangled Banner in several different languages. This was in response to the recent uproar surrounding a Spanish-language version of the American national anthem. To quote our producer's mission statement:

We created this multi-lingual version of the Star-Spangled Banner to raise awareness of Senate Resolution 458 and House Resolution 793, which state that English is the only language in which our National Anthem should be sung or recited. This resolution was unanimously passed by the Senate and is currently before the House Judiciary Committee.

If you listen to the recording (click on the title of this post), it starts off with one line in Italian, one line in Spanish, then two lines ("whose broad stripes and brights stars," etc.) sung by yours truly in Swedish, continuing on in Bulgarian...

(in Italian)
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
(in Spanish)
What so proudly we hail by the twilight’s last gleaming?
(in Swedish)
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.

Do listen to the entire track. (Lyrics are posted on the website, so you can follow along. I hope you read Tagalog.) While it was done rather quickly, so as to be put up on the Internet while these resolutions were being discussed, we had hoped it would have a future life, if immigration issues become a major theme in the November elections.

Perhaps we, as a class, will see the development of this meme in political spheres. (Wouldn't that be wild?) Perhaps not. But I did think it was an interesting attempt to spread a meme.