Priorities

Friday, September 09, 2022

I wonder why the British willingly pay taxes to maintain a “Royal Family.” There probably are questions about what might happen to crown jewels and more objects of incredible value if there are no designated users. One solution might be to dedicate a museum to Royal valuables and turn their stories into lasting memories of royal status and history.

I grew up through the entire era of Queen Elizabeth II and liked her. Well, mostly, except during the period following Diana’s death when the Royal household fell into chaos. The Queen found coping difficult; she appeared more human in her struggle to step up to the plate.

She finally acknowledged publically that Diana had been an “outstanding” (my word) individual. In an astonishing gesture during Diana’s funeral procession, Queen Elizabeth courtesied to Diana’s coffin, against a standing protocol: “The Queen doesn’t courtesy to anyone.”

Technological advances during Elizabeth’s lifetime gave the world images of a Royal family’s wins and losses. Their marriages, family life, official duties, and personalities, gave the world uncensored images of a dysfunctional family group. Like all families, some had characteristics we could choose to appreciate or not.

Throughout her life, Elizabeth paid obeisance to Royal traditions, while women’s roles rapidly evolved beyond the Palace walls. Diana’s short and fantastic life embodied those social changes. During Elizabeth’s reign, Diana’s presence in the Court (and that of another modern royal wife, Fergie) revealed cracks and craziness in traditional protocol and dysfunctional Royals.

Such insights revealed the Royals, like us all, as a family struggling to cope. Except some of them are adored by the public and all are very wealthy. Some portion of their accumulated wealth belongs to England’s population. Determining who owns what would require legal minds, and findings would force updates to traditions and laws.

Today, among all the pressures from worldwide, add the local Brexit situation and a renewed, determined Irish ethnicity. Some relevant questions now: Are the Royals still blindly adored? Is there growing public support for altering their tax-supported and majorly-elevated status?

Dear Friends: This dynamic socio-economic world pushes us to re-prioritize. Diana