According to historical facts, this country declared its independence from the English monarchy some 235 years ago. But judging from the comments about a wedding taking place on Friday of this week, it would be hard to discern that we were at last free of the constraints of the English monarchy.
From what I can gather, the grandson of the current Queen of England is scheduled to take his marriage vows on Friday of this week. For a high proportion of the western world, this is basically a non-event. In this country it is as though July 4, 1776 never happened. Nearly every news broadcast brings us up to date on the preparations of the Queen’s grandson for his wedding. I will admit to a great degree of prejudice in this matter. As everyone would know, I am an American; more than that, I am an American of Irish ancestry. It baffles me endlessly that we should become so concerned about the marriage of the Queen’s grandson.
There is, for example, a television program that comes on at six o’clock in the morning in this country. It is run by Joe Scarborough, the former Congressman from the northern part of Florida. All of this week until the wedding takes place, Scarborough has taken the entire cast of his crew to England so that we would miss absolutely nothing about the ceremony. Other performers also seem to have gone gaga over the prospects of having the Queen’s grandson take the vows of marriage.
I am perfectly content to live side by side with our former masters as long as they stay on their side of the Atlantic and we stay on our side. In some respects I have great admiration for the blokes and mates who have constituted the less-than-royal makeup of the British Empire.
As these lines are being dictated on Tuesday, I cannot wait for Friday to arrive. On that great and glorious day, the Queen’s grandson will claim his new wife and we will be free to go back to worrying about the Syrians, Libyans, Iraqis, and Afghans. It could probably be argued that taking a break from the serious business such as is taking place in Libya and Syria is perhaps a good thing. But I would argue that both problems remain and that our failure to deal with the serious problems of this world is something that we can no longer afford.
But no matter how it is cut, I will look forward to Friday evening of this week when I know that the Queen’s grandson in England is safely in the arms of his newly beloved spouse. I wish them the best but I would hope that news of their marriage would be a thing of the past for American broadcasters. And those broadcasters ought to be reminded from time to time that we are not subjects of the British monarchy. And so it is that come Saturday with the dawn’s early light, there is hope that this affair will have reached its climax and we can go back to the business of the world.
E. E. CARR
April 26, 2011
Essay 546
~~
Kevin’s commentary: It was one of the most-watched events in human history. It was notable only for the silly hats of the royalty. I caught the highlights the next day on the internet and, hats aside, consider even that five-minute skim to have been wasted time.
Honestly.
What.
