Dear Commons Community,
On the last day of our cruise in Scandinavia, the Baltics, and Russia, I attend the final lecture by the historian, Charles Carlton, a professor from the University of North Carolina. He reviewed briefly the places we had been and commented mostly on where we started and where we will end – the United Kingdom. He used the 60th Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s reign on what has changed in the UK since she inherited the crown. He talked a lot about the role of the UK in world affairs, but he also commented on social conditions such as the diversity of the UK’s population, the decline of organized religion, and the changes in the family, the latter three quite similar to the United States.
He also commented on the rise of nationalism among the UK states. He specifically gave examples of the Irish in Ireland and also of the English in England. Just a few days ago I was discussing with a young woman from the UK about the Queen’s Jubilee and the huge crowds I had witnessed. As part of the discussion I said that as someone from the UK you have a different perspective on the monarchy than I do as an American. She gently corrected me by saying that she was from England and that the monarchy is important but that the real reason there was such a large turnout of support for the Queen was that the day was declared a national holiday so people were off from work and children were off from school. She went on to describe that the Queen really was of modest importance to her and many others in England.
Today, we begin our journey back home to New York, our ship having docked in Harwich, England a few minutes ago.
Tony
