Way to go, Coca Cola!

By Tom Ehrich

SEATTLE -- I stopped drinking Coca Cola years ago -- not in protest but in a bid for health. But I want to applaud their presenting "America the Beautiful" sung in seven languages.

In a 60-second Super Bowl ad and now a 90-second version at the bizarre Sochi Winter Olympics, the soft drink company showed people of different ethnic backgrounds and voices singing the patriotic song in six languages other than English.

I found it charming and warming. It spoke eloquently to the America that I know today -- and the America that my ancestors knew when they arrived many years ago speaking German and Norwegian.

Yes, most immigrants eventually learn English, but many don't. And whether or not they "speak America," as the right-wing bigots demand, they are part of this amazing polyglot land.

When bigots attacked Coca Cola after the Super Bowl, the company could have backed down. But they did the better thing: repeating the ad and making it 50% longer.

Good for them.