The Queen’s Reach

|
Posted: Sep 10, 2022 12:01 AM

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

London — Watching BBC and Sky News coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, one is struck by the adjectives used by reporters, commentators and people interviewed outside Balmoral castle and Buckingham Palace: sense of duty, virtue, integrity, service. What astounds is that these and other character traits the late Queen exhibited were once considered normal and worthy of being taught to children, but today stand in sharp contrast to what is modeled and accepted.One commentator said the Queen’s death is the symbolic end of the Greatest Generation. We pay lip service to the virtues that made the greatest generation great, but no longer promote them, whether it is in public schools, social media, or the wider culture.I saw her once. It was in the early 1950s, shortly after her ascension to the throne. She was on her first visit to the U.S. as the sovereign. My father took me to a University of Maryland football game. She circled the football stadium track in an open car before a cheering crowd.So little is known about Elizabeth, the person. That’s one reason why the Netflix series “The Crown” attracted such a large viewership. Claire Foy, who played the young Elizabeth, displays the early self-doubt she must have felt as one of only six female monarchs in the past one thousand y …