LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Reader upset over anthem
To the Editor:

Watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, I was quite taken aback with how our national anthem was sung. I did not appreciate the jazzed up version and thought it should have been sung with pride the way it was written.

I had planned on writing a letter stating so. However, with the success this nation had seen with Owning the Podium, I thought perhaps it was best to just let it lie.

Unfortunately, now that the Olympics are overwith and everything is back to normal … I was listening to the news on CTV and I heard a letter was sent to Tony Clement to see about getting our national anthem changed to be politically correct by changing the words: ‘all our SONS command.’

This is totally insane and I am appalled. I was born in this country. I was raised in this country. I used to be proud of this country.

We have changed our uniforms in this country to please immigrants who want to work here with their headgear. If we immigrated to their country, I am sure they would not change their uniforms to please us, religious beliefs or not.

We have changed regulations as to what is allowed in schools, permitting students to carry a little knife because it is their religion and their right to have it. If Canadians are caught carrying a knife, they are expelled. No persons - regardless of who they are - should be allowed to carry a knife in a school.

Businesses are not allowed to wish people Merry Christmas because it is considered by some to be offensive.

Now, someone wants to change the words to our national anthem.

Come on, this is our country. This is all Canadians’ country. It’s about time we celebrate and own our country.

It’s about time Canadians tell everyone else if they don’t like what is in our country, then perhaps they need to leave and go back home, because I am tired of having to change our country to suit immigrants who come here.

I am tired of people coming to my country and changing my heritage. How can one continue to be proud when we allow them to dictate what our country is supposed to be like? How can we continue to be proud when we allow them to change what we were proud of?

I am married to an immigrant who came to this country for a better life from Germany. My husband’s family adapted to the way we live our lives here in Canada, not in Germany. They became proud Canadians, who now live in Canada - not in little Germany of Canada.

I would like to be proud of my country and not feel like I am being pushed aside again for being Canadian, while someone else enjoys a different version of what was mine to begin with.

This is my country and I want my rights back. I want my heritage back.

Our national anthem is fine just the way it is written. It needs to be left alone.

Darlene Gauweiler, Caesarea