Singing “The Internationale” in America?

by Frank Li Everybody growing up in the East knows the song of "The Internationale". It was very well composed both in form (e.g. rhythm) and in content (e.g. wording). Growing up in Communist China (1949-1976), I sang it almost daily and I was brainwashed to believe every word in it. Here is a big problem though: the entire content proved to be completely wrong! What's the point? Well, Michigan passed a Right-to-work bill in December 2012. The next day, President Obama showed up in Michigan, criticizing it. As someone who is now very tired of hearing President Obama talking, I purposefully listened to him this time for the sake of writing this article. Surely, the President did not disappoint me: he practically sang the song of "the Internationale" on the podium! For this article, I began translating "the Internationale", which I know by heart in Chinese, to English. Half way through, I...