Upon further review, you’ve got to be kidding me

We watched the Super Bowl last Sunday. We were thrilled to see our Seattle Seahawks win the game. It was my adopted hometown’s day of victory, one I and the rest of my family have waiting for a very long time. It was a blowout to be sure. I wanted a nail-biter, but hey, it was a win after all and that is all that mattered.

Of course the other highlight to the game are the Super Bowl commercials, which can prove to be better than game itself at times. This year was a good one for both. We all laughed at the Dobiwawa ad and that Doritos ad with the little cowgirl and the large dog. Got misty watching the Bud ad with the puppy and the horse. And felt really good watching the Coke-a-Cola commercial.

The next day after all the bluster and hoopla, I went online for my daily fix of email, news and Facebook. It is my way to connect to the rest of the world out there beyond the wilds of Alaska. That is when I saw the first hints that the Coke ad melted more than few brains of reason and human decency. As I read more and later Googled it to find out more about it, all I could say was are you kidding me? A part of me wanted nothing more than to take my head and beat it against the computer screen. That is how disgusted I was, and still am, about the whole ignorant mess.

What sparked all this? Coke-a-Cola aired a commercial during the Super Bowl featuring Americans of all walks of life, cultural origin, religious identity, race and sexual orientation with the song “America the Beautiful” sung in 7 or 8 languages as the soundtrack. From English to Arabic, it was refreshing to hear a favorite song on mine sung in so many different tongues. I never heard it sung like that.

Apparently that made more than a few angry, mostly conservatives from talking heads on Fox News to the so-called average Joe. According to the USA Today website, one commenter was reported to have said, “Speak English or go home.” Another said, “Screwed up a beautiful song. No Coke for my family.” And those were the tame ones.

One that got me was on Coke’s Facebook page itself: “Nice to see that Coke likes to sing an AMERICAN song in the terrorist’s language. Way to go Coke. You can leave America.” I couldn’t stomach any more. Others like Glenn Beck and former GOP Rep. Allen West went nuts. West thought the ad was a sign that “we are on the road to perdition.”

So let me say, this retired Army NCO thinks Coke is on the right side of history here.

Imagine the outrage if Coke brought back that 40-year-old commercial that featured people from all over the world in native dress on a hilltop singing “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” It was a song sung in hope of peace, and was a very successful advertisement for Coke that worked in spades.

The point of the new Coke commercial was to reflect that America is beautiful and made up of lots of different people with varied traditions. A few loud and ignorant voices failed to get it.

America is a melting pot of many people from every nation on this earth who immigrated here. Unless you are of native descent, you are an immigrant or descended from one. Yes, Native American or first nations ancestors came over from Asia. But that was more than 12,000 years ago during the end of the last ice age. So they are in essence truly native. Face facts, the rest of us are all immigrants.

Some people took offense that the ad showed people other than the Norman Rockwell stereotype. It was shades of tan, bronze, brown, black with tints of yellow and white. Every color under the human rainbow was prominently featured in that 60-second commercial. It even featured a gay couple with their daughter playing in the sun holding hands and sharing a smile. A first for Coke and Super Bowl commercials. The face of modern America is truly reflected here. Just look at our cities like Anchorage or here in the Valley and tell me who you really see; people from all over the world, and a good many of them are in fact American citizens.

They came with their cultures and traditions, adding to a very rich mixture. It isn’t a mix to drown out everything into a blandness lacking color and life. It is a rather lumpy and chunky stirring full of spice and vigor. It is all part of the grand experiment, the American experience. Diversity is the key and the unification of this nation. Without it we would fail to be who we truly are. Embrace it, celebrate it in song, dance, food and festival.

It also showed people of various faiths from the young men in Jewish yarmulke to a lovely young woman in a traditional Islamic headscarf getting food from a street vendor. This will bring out cries that “this is a Christian nation!” It is not. We are, in fact, a secular nation, as designed by our founding fathers.

The real sticker was the soundtrack. “America the Beautiful” was the song, sung in a sampling of seven or eight languages. This brought out the worst of the comments and vitriol. “English only!” Was the insane mantra of ignorance and bigotry in those stupid rants. Be aware that someone will pitch a fit overhearing a person speaking in a foreign tongue on a cellphone and will tell them off by the ill used quote “This is America, we speak English here.” Only to be told off in fluent Navajo, which is far more American than English ever was. I never liked that quote and never will.

So show me where it is a rule, law or regulation that this song must be sung only in English. English is not the only language spoken here. I am not threatened by it, nor should anyone with reason and a right mind.

What those who have raised a foolish fuss and near meltdown of so-called conservative values to this nation and the rest of world is simply this: there are some in modern America who have embarrassed the nation with their bigotry, ignorance, intolerance and outright idiocy. I have very little tolerance for any stupidity like this regardless of political party or ideology.

Since it went out on the Internet and the rest of the media printed and spoken, the whole darned planet knows we still need to grow up a bit. Frankly, our moronic reaction to that Coke ad angers and embarrasses me to no end.

Yet people still come here in search of freedom and the dream to become an American citizen. I hope that dream remains unaffected by all this stupidity.

Now for a note to give one pause before ranting at me. Katharine Lee Bates (1859 to 1929) wrote “America the Beautiful” in 1913. She lived in a 25-year relationship until the death of her “joy of life” to cancer in 1915. A woman. Her name was Katharine Coman. Just a little food for thought and reflection.

So when Coke airs the 90-second version of the same commercial during the Olympics. I’m going to bust out a bottle of Coke (I don’t drink the stuff, I prefer Mountain Dew) and turn up the volume. My hope is that somehow we can teach the rest of the nation to sing a song in perfect harmony like we tried 40 years before. People of America, some of you need lessons in singing and manners.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.