Think for Yourself: ‘Strong and Free’ IS Canadian

The more I research it, the more I find that the words ‘Strong and Free’ are more Canadian than they are American. The more I look into this, the more I think David Taras doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he says:

‘Those are words that ring in the American national anthem, on American licence plates, in the American Declaration of Independence.’

In researching this, some synchronocity brought up THIS post by IP, which follows along a similar vein.

When we object to the words ’strong and free’ on the basis that they are too American, we are objecting to a construct of what we think is American. America, most likely, hijacked the words ’strong and free’, splashed on some stars, stripes and eagles, and thought it looked good. That’s what empires do - they put everything into a pot and make symbolic stew. I dare you to find me some American paraphenalia that combines eagles, stars and stripes with the words ’strong and free’ that predates our national anthem.

It’s actually quite sad how we think the words ’strong and free’ are too American. It speaks to people’s ignorage, not only of Americans, but of our history as well. Yes. Ignorage - blind anger arising from ignorance.

The words come right out of our National Anthem, fer fackssakes. The words “Glorious and free” were excerpted from the Canadian national anthem, and adopted by Manitoba as the provincial motto. Likewise, Alberta’s ‘fortis et liber’ is a latin translation of the lyrics in the Canadian National anthem.

In the ‘go it alone’ licence plate attitude theme, we have Quebec’s ‘Je me souviens’ - I remember - which also happens to be the province’s motto.

As for Taras’ assertion that the words ’strong and free’ are in the American anthem, he might be thinking of ‘land of the free’ in the Star-Spangled Banner. At best, he has one word accounted for. He could have found the Declaration of Independence online and through the magic of “CTRL+F” found out that the words “strong and free’ are nowhere to be found in the document. Hell, even the word ’strong’ isn’t in the document. Taras could have looked at a latin list of state mottoes and found that neither ’strong’ nor ‘free’, neither ‘fortis’ or ‘liber’ are anywhere to be found in any US state motto. Finally, Taras could have clicked through the license plates of the USA to see how most of the plates follow the formula:

The X State.

PA is the Keystone, NY is the Empire, Utah is the Silver state, etc., etc.

Alternatively, Taras could have done a qualitative assessment of the linkage between the words ’strong and free’ and the images they evoke by using an image search engine.

Further research would have shown that the current licence plate (Wild Rose Country) has more in common with Montana (Big Sky Country), Marlboro (Marlboro Country) and Iowa (which also has the wild rose as its official flower).

Yes. Taras could have done that, but he didn’t. Instead of doing some actual research, he evoked his gut-level reaction, one that speaks from a knee-jerk anti-American bias and ignorance.

Think for yourself. Strong and free is distinctly Canadian and Albertan. Objecting to it on the basis of anti-American stance is just an objection to the bald eagles, stars and stripes WE as Canadians associate with it, which constitutes a false construct of reality. In other words - objecting to the words ’strong and free’ as ‘too American’ is delusional and ignorant.

If you really want to object to American cultural hegemony, then object to the hijacking of our identity by Americans who use the words ’strong and free’ in conjunction with the bald eagle.

Have some frickin’ pride Alberta, and do some research before calling these distinctly Canadian words ‘American’.

http://www.strongandfreeemblem.com/