Dear Editor
Last week I happened to turn the radio dial to one of the numerous U.S. stations that clutter up our airwaves. An announcer was about to interview a male English person about something but first, he just had to ask him his thoughts on the coming coronation. The fellow was indifferent although he condescended to say, “The queen was a nice old lady.”
A nice old lady? Had I been next to him I would have been tempted to kick him where it would do the most harm. (By that sentence I’ve proved on one will call me “a nice old lady.”)
Why did that man come out with such an ignorant, patronizing crack? Queen Elizabeth II spent her life doing her duty, living up to her vows and holding together to Commonwealth only to be called “a nice old lady.” All it lacked was a pat on the head for her.
When Elizabeth II was crowned it was a bright event in our lives because so many of us involved ourselves in it. The teacher in our one-room schoolhouse was of Dutch descent and a firm supporter of the constitutional monarchy. On the day of the coronation she had the school radio on all day and there was no, or little, oral work. We listened while we worked.
The next Saturday was the day for which we had prepared to take part, for the rural municipality and the nearest large town together gave a big party which included the adults.
There was no indifference or apathy then. There is now. That one-room schoolhouse became a busy community centre for years. Now it stands empty and derelict although other country centres are used and busy.
So many people who are indifferent or even hostile to our system of government just don’t understand how it works and what safeguards it gives us. The question is why don’t they know? Why do they think it would be so simple to throw the baby out with the bathwater and not question what would happen to the empty bathtub? I also wonder why broadcasters give so much time to people who have come here from other countries, who come here and then tell us we should change the system under which they are doing quite well. What is their reason for coming?
I recall a Canadian interviewing a person who came here from Jamaica and who was watching Charles and Camilla on their Canadian visit. He was going on about how wonderful it was for Jamaica to be a republic (after one year only). The reporter failed to ask the man if he was anit-royalist why was he watching a Charles and Camilla event and also if it’s so great in Jamaica how come he’d moved to Canada?
Well, May 8, there will be the funeral of that school teacher whose loyalty became deeper when the Commonwealth country, Canada, liberated her mother country from the hideous occupation by Nazis. They were the product of a country which definitely was not a democracy with a constitutional monarchy. During that time one of her cousins died from starvation as did other Dutch people. One of those Canadian soldiers in time became her husband.
She became my sister-in-law and it was disappointing that she couldn’t experience a second coronation. It would have cheered her greatly for she was one of those who might have said “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” except would not use the word “ain’t” even in jest.
I still have a little flag which was given to all school children at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Canadian flags now bear the maple leaf. It should still stand for something other than apathy and indifference.
Christine Pike
Waseca
