President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a political genius, who personally orchestrated every detail of history’s first visit from their Britannic Majesties to American soil. The king descended into George Washington’s burial crypt to lay a red, white and blue wreath on the sarcophagus of his ancestor’s greatest nemesis. Apparently he was overwhelmed by the occasion, reportedly saying, “very interesting.”
You have perfectly explained what is happening between Harry and the rest of his family. As well as the American fascination with British royalty.
I’ll admit that I haven’t understood that fascination, except for the few times when their humanity “leaks” out. Weddings, funerals, family dysfunction. Perhaps those are the moments when people can say, “they’re just like us.”
But they don’t think they are. As you said, the monarchy has lost its chance to modernize and be relevant. Good riddance.
After watching the interview, I thought to myself, Harry told the truth. Will Charles & William decide to continue to use the press to create more of an alternative universe or acknowledge the truth & begin reconciliation?
Regardless, I’m so happy love found Harry & Meghan. I wish them the best!
I don’t understand how the monarchy has survived. It is such an odd institution filled with average people who believe themselves to be special or chosen. Why the British people put them on such a pedestal is beyond me.
I’m sure his mother would be proud of Harry and would likely be living with he and Meghan in our beautiful state today if she were still alive.
Prince William has been told since birth that he is special. That he is above the commoners. I doubt he is even capable of considering any other possibility. The cognitive dissonance that consideration would cause him would likely destroy him. He’d lose all sense of himself and likely be unable to reassemble in any manner that shows he puts his pants on the morning in just the same way every other human in the world does. Lucky for him, he doesn’t need to because the entire British monarchy continues to support his notion that he is special and above it all.
I have no doubt that the royals think of themselves as apart and above all the rest of us. How can they not having been treated that way for centuries. Along the way they also have accumulated vast sums of money which here would probably cause them to feel above us even if they were not royal.
I don't know nor care if the King's consort is a bitch but I do have this feeling that she and the rest of the royals are just a tiny bit racist, or perhaps more than that. I should also say I am for the first time beginning not to like William much.
Exactly said, couldn’t agree more Harry and Megan are lovely people who deserve to live their own lives free of that monarchy. Personally I endured a British bully for 10 years who tried to use our children as weapons. It was brutal as only the British can be. Subtle brutality that only keen observers could see through. A nightmare but we survived to live other days!
People forget that Diana, while still married to Charles, clandestinely worked with Andrew Morton to have her own book published - My Story. And then did her interview while separated. It was the final straw and the Queen demanded the Wales divorce. Diana was widely condemned. No one seems to remember Charles also gave an interview. In the last year of her life, Diana was working to rid the world of land mines. The British press called her "mentally ill" and "a loose cannon". She was hounded mercilessly. The day she was killed the press changed their tune. As her brother famously said at her funeral, Diana was the most hunted person in the world. History is repeating with Harry. Harry will never get the reconciliation he so badly wants. Both the British press and "royal" family hate Meghan. And they'll hate Harry like they loathed his mother because he told his story.
My husband and I have traveled to the same resort in Montego Bay every year for over 20 years and over the course of time have come to know many of the locals. This topic came up a lot during our recent stay and I can tell you the Jamaicans we know are DONE. Over the course of time we have seen the attitude go from resentful to amused. Willy and Kate made fools of themselves with the colonial-era display depicted in the photo but they sure provided fodder for some great jokes.
Very well said Steve! You stated an articulate & adroit perception of what is going here with the “royal” issue. And very well interpreted exactly what I too perceive. Thank you for such a clear explication & interpretation of pertinent events. I have wondered about that ridiculous photo of “Wills & Kate” since I first saw it, and been repulsed by all the reporting of “Kate & Camilla” cavorting about in different tiaras belonging to QE II since her death. It all smacked of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on or put into words. But you did. Thank you. And I’m sure you’ll be roasted again for presenting Harry & Megan as human beings struggling to survive and live their lives with happiness & joy, just as most of us do. But I, for one, both applaud and appreciate your assessment and your words to state it! Yes, the eternal posturing & sycophancy is sickening, tiresome, and out of step with the world in which we all actually live. Harry & Megan, like so many in dysfunctional families, are speaking truth and being pilloried for it. Delusional family systems always turn against the truth tellers.
I have never known or cared much about the Royals. I sat down to watch the six hours of their documentary series with an open mind. (My only bias is that I too graduated from Northwestern.) I could not have been more impressed with both Harry and Meghan. I think they are both sincere, warm, bright, charming, and wonderful. Funny isn't it, how we credit royals just for being recognizable as human beings? Well done, Steve. You get it right, as usual.
I agree! And the price to be paid for truth telling in our twisted culture (on both sides of the Atlantic, alas), is to smear the truth teller so that the comfortable remain so. We do not like having our notions of fairy tales disrupted.
Every time I read about these people, I say a silent prayer of gratitude to the great George Washington who kicked their royal asses on the American battlefield and to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers who pledged their sacred honor to independence.
They freed us from this arrogant bullshit and left them to their own snobbish irrelevance.
Great job laying out the situation with Harry, his decisions and the monarchy's reaction! Just yesterday I was talking to a loved one who said, "He should just sit down and shut up. He's embarassing himself and his family."
I'm glad Harry hasn't done that and grateful with how eloquently you point out that he's telling his truth to power and that's an honorable decision.
Your columns provide a framework for many of my inchoate thoughts and feelings that's smart, sensible, and compassionate. I gain fresh perspective and insight that gives me hope that we can untangle - or at least better understand - some of the mess in which we find ourselves.
Cheers to Harry and you both for standing up and telling the truth!
In my mind there is no escaping the fact that a large part of the struggle against Megan Markel is her her color and her pride in it, but do you think the questions about Harry’s percentage are also a contributing factor?? The Queen softened my feelings about the Royals, but now that she is gone it is hard to believe that they aren’t on the road to a vastly reduced role of importance.
Bravo, Steve!
You have perfectly explained what is happening between Harry and the rest of his family. As well as the American fascination with British royalty.
I’ll admit that I haven’t understood that fascination, except for the few times when their humanity “leaks” out. Weddings, funerals, family dysfunction. Perhaps those are the moments when people can say, “they’re just like us.”
But they don’t think they are. As you said, the monarchy has lost its chance to modernize and be relevant. Good riddance.
What courage it is taking for Harry to speak this truth. Thank you for both supporting him and speaking the truth yourself.
After watching the interview, I thought to myself, Harry told the truth. Will Charles & William decide to continue to use the press to create more of an alternative universe or acknowledge the truth & begin reconciliation?
Regardless, I’m so happy love found Harry & Meghan. I wish them the best!
I don’t understand how the monarchy has survived. It is such an odd institution filled with average people who believe themselves to be special or chosen. Why the British people put them on such a pedestal is beyond me.
I’m sure his mother would be proud of Harry and would likely be living with he and Meghan in our beautiful state today if she were still alive.
Prince William has been told since birth that he is special. That he is above the commoners. I doubt he is even capable of considering any other possibility. The cognitive dissonance that consideration would cause him would likely destroy him. He’d lose all sense of himself and likely be unable to reassemble in any manner that shows he puts his pants on the morning in just the same way every other human in the world does. Lucky for him, he doesn’t need to because the entire British monarchy continues to support his notion that he is special and above it all.
I have no doubt that the royals think of themselves as apart and above all the rest of us. How can they not having been treated that way for centuries. Along the way they also have accumulated vast sums of money which here would probably cause them to feel above us even if they were not royal.
I don't know nor care if the King's consort is a bitch but I do have this feeling that she and the rest of the royals are just a tiny bit racist, or perhaps more than that. I should also say I am for the first time beginning not to like William much.
Exactly said, couldn’t agree more Harry and Megan are lovely people who deserve to live their own lives free of that monarchy. Personally I endured a British bully for 10 years who tried to use our children as weapons. It was brutal as only the British can be. Subtle brutality that only keen observers could see through. A nightmare but we survived to live other days!
It's nearly comical, all of it, save for the overstuffed, over serious contemptuous officiousness....and naked moral underdevelopment....
P.S. not a soul who has read one of your pieces could ever presume you would recommend a Sarah Palin
People forget that Diana, while still married to Charles, clandestinely worked with Andrew Morton to have her own book published - My Story. And then did her interview while separated. It was the final straw and the Queen demanded the Wales divorce. Diana was widely condemned. No one seems to remember Charles also gave an interview. In the last year of her life, Diana was working to rid the world of land mines. The British press called her "mentally ill" and "a loose cannon". She was hounded mercilessly. The day she was killed the press changed their tune. As her brother famously said at her funeral, Diana was the most hunted person in the world. History is repeating with Harry. Harry will never get the reconciliation he so badly wants. Both the British press and "royal" family hate Meghan. And they'll hate Harry like they loathed his mother because he told his story.
My husband and I have traveled to the same resort in Montego Bay every year for over 20 years and over the course of time have come to know many of the locals. This topic came up a lot during our recent stay and I can tell you the Jamaicans we know are DONE. Over the course of time we have seen the attitude go from resentful to amused. Willy and Kate made fools of themselves with the colonial-era display depicted in the photo but they sure provided fodder for some great jokes.
Very well said Steve! You stated an articulate & adroit perception of what is going here with the “royal” issue. And very well interpreted exactly what I too perceive. Thank you for such a clear explication & interpretation of pertinent events. I have wondered about that ridiculous photo of “Wills & Kate” since I first saw it, and been repulsed by all the reporting of “Kate & Camilla” cavorting about in different tiaras belonging to QE II since her death. It all smacked of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on or put into words. But you did. Thank you. And I’m sure you’ll be roasted again for presenting Harry & Megan as human beings struggling to survive and live their lives with happiness & joy, just as most of us do. But I, for one, both applaud and appreciate your assessment and your words to state it! Yes, the eternal posturing & sycophancy is sickening, tiresome, and out of step with the world in which we all actually live. Harry & Megan, like so many in dysfunctional families, are speaking truth and being pilloried for it. Delusional family systems always turn against the truth tellers.
I have never known or cared much about the Royals. I sat down to watch the six hours of their documentary series with an open mind. (My only bias is that I too graduated from Northwestern.) I could not have been more impressed with both Harry and Meghan. I think they are both sincere, warm, bright, charming, and wonderful. Funny isn't it, how we credit royals just for being recognizable as human beings? Well done, Steve. You get it right, as usual.
I agree! And the price to be paid for truth telling in our twisted culture (on both sides of the Atlantic, alas), is to smear the truth teller so that the comfortable remain so. We do not like having our notions of fairy tales disrupted.
Nice job, Steve.
Every time I read about these people, I say a silent prayer of gratitude to the great George Washington who kicked their royal asses on the American battlefield and to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers who pledged their sacred honor to independence.
They freed us from this arrogant bullshit and left them to their own snobbish irrelevance.
Steve,
Great job laying out the situation with Harry, his decisions and the monarchy's reaction! Just yesterday I was talking to a loved one who said, "He should just sit down and shut up. He's embarassing himself and his family."
I'm glad Harry hasn't done that and grateful with how eloquently you point out that he's telling his truth to power and that's an honorable decision.
Your columns provide a framework for many of my inchoate thoughts and feelings that's smart, sensible, and compassionate. I gain fresh perspective and insight that gives me hope that we can untangle - or at least better understand - some of the mess in which we find ourselves.
Cheers to Harry and you both for standing up and telling the truth!
In my mind there is no escaping the fact that a large part of the struggle against Megan Markel is her her color and her pride in it, but do you think the questions about Harry’s percentage are also a contributing factor?? The Queen softened my feelings about the Royals, but now that she is gone it is hard to believe that they aren’t on the road to a vastly reduced role of importance.