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Sen. Linda Menard of Wasilla is defending her bill to change "Alaska's Flag," the state song, by saying that she does not want to change it, she wants to add to it.

She also says that no one would be required  to sing the second verse. But the last time I checked, no one is required to sing the first verse either.

I have asked her office a second time to explain why the copyrighted 1986 text by Carol Beery Davis has been changed in her bill and in previous bills. The University of Alaska Foundation holds the copyright and there are nine differences.

The song is titled "Alaska's Flag," not  the "Alaska Flag Song."

I would suggest that the best way to "right a wrong" here is to acknowledge that Alaskans should become more informed about the origins of "Alaska's Flag,"  a work of art inspired by the words and the flag design by Benny Benson.

Here is Sen. Menard's response to my Saturday column, submitted for the News-Miner editorial page:

Adding a second verse to the Alaska Flag Song is a first step to righting some wrongs. As in years past, the opposition to adding the second verse is coming out of Fairbanks, much as it did when Rep. Fran Ulmer introduced the bill more than 20 years ago. But the argument for adding the verse has more to do with the recognition of a very important group of people in this state than it does with the poetry or performance of the song.

As Dermot Cole writes in his column, the case for not adding the second verse usually is you shouldn’t change something considered a work of art. But, I would argue adding a second verse is not changing the song. There is no modification to the music, and the first verse remains the same. My bill simply puts in statue non-native Alaskan Carol Beery Davis’s second verse and its wonderful tribute to the Alaska Natives who were here long before statehood.

The bill does not require the singing of the second verse – which many choirs already do anyway – and legislation like this means more to many Alaskans than other bills moving their way through the process.  It doesn’t create a new law folks have to abide by, and it cost the state nothing. Plus, when I look out to the audience during committee hearings on this bill and see tears in the eyes of people who have been hoping for its passage for years, it makes me certain this is the right action to take.

But the larger issue is the Native community’s vast support of this bill every time it’s come up in the Legislature.  This is important.

Mr. Cole’s assertion that the first verse of the Flag Song satisfactorily recognizes Benny Benson may be true in his eyes, but it’s not as direct as the second verse. The second verse also goes further, talking about the Native culture and its work to sustain Alaska as the Great Land.

Sen. Albert Kookesh from Angoon has been so eloquent in explaining why adding the second verse is so important to him and his people.  In two committee meetings he’s spoken to the lack of recognition, in his eyes, afforded to Native people. Be it the Alaska State Seal, the Flag Song or the fact that bills have, in the past, been scuttled because the word Native or tribe appeared in them, Sen. Kookesh is correct when he says passing the second verse to the Flag Song is an important first step for the Native Community.  He illustrates this by pointing out that before last year, bills with the word Native or tribe in them went nowhere. Sen. Kookesh also spoke about this in Juneau at the Alaska Federation of Natives conference this week.

With respect to Carol Beery Davis, who at 95 years of age wrote the second verse, it’s obvious adding to the Alaska Flag Song is larger than the words she wrote in 1987. It’s an honor to the Native people who have lived along side settlers in the state since we first arrived. In Fran Ulmer’s words when she visited my office February 11, “it’s a small step in righting a wrong.”