Obama Goes to Bat for the Queen

All right!

It was evident that a few months ago when President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama travelled to London and met with Queen Elizabeth II, an immediate connection between the parties was made on a deeply personal level. (Photo: Queen Elizabeth II and Michelle Obama during a personal moment, April 2, 2009 - the Queen was not offended). Personally, I was pleased to see this, as I deeply appreciate the long-term historical connection between Great Britain and the United States of America. I think sometimes people tend to forget about the abiding ties between our countries, forged through fire and iron.

I was chagrined to read recent press reports that the French government had neglected to issue an invitation to Queen Elizabeth to participate in D-Day memorial events.

I didn't write about it this year on Memorial Day, but it was in my mind - and the coverage of veterans in our local newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, hasn't helped my emotions. It has published a series of stories on local veterans of WWII, who are dying at the rate of about 1,000 (?) veterans each month. (Not sure if that means 1,000 U.S. WWII veterans a month or worldwide WWII veterans a month. When my dad died, my recollection is that veterans of his era were dying at the rate of 5,000 a month. (Image: my dad, WWII, personal archive). If the 1,000 a month figure is correct, that means that a lot of deaths have occurred since Dad died, and the death rate has slowed, only because there aren't a whole lot of WWII vets left). My dad, a WWII vet, died in early November, 2002. Since he died, my emotions seem to be closer to the surface of my "skin" than ever before, perhaps because I'm dealing with issues of my own mortality. Perhaps because I realize the most important things in life the older I get.


Anyway, knowing how much Queen Elizabeth's family, and Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, did for morale in Great Britain and the British Empire during WWII, and knowing how many British men died during and after crossing the English Channel to Dunkirk, my thought is that of course she should be invited as a representative of the British people, in addition to PM Gordon Brown. (Image: then Princess Elizabeth in uniform. Princess Elizabeth served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II).

Call me sentimental - I freely admit it. Queen Elizabeth is of the same generation as my parents; she got married in 1947. She, and my folks (dad now deceased), have lived through the most incredible historic events and hard times that we, their children, can't even imagine.

Bravo to President Obama for sending this blatant message to the French Government. Story from "The Caucus" at The New York Times:

June 1, 2009, 4:10 pm — Updated: 5:26 pm -->
White House Seeks a Proper Invitation for the Queen
By Helene Cooper

The Obama administration is working with their French counterparts to make sure that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth — reportedly miffed, according to the British Press, at not being invited to the D-Day anniversary festivities in Normandy this weekend — gets a formal invitation.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that President Obama thinks the queen should be present at the event on Saturday. “We are working with those involved to see if we can make that happen,” Mr. Gibbs said.

Mr. Gibbs’s comments came after Buckingham Palace pointedly noted last week that the queen didn’t get an invite, an omission which has had the British press fuming. Mr. Obama is attending the event (French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited him two months ago) as is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr. Sarkozy has said that the queen is welcome to come to the ceremony, but Obama administration officials say that they would like to see her receive a formal invitation.

Driving home that point, Mr. Gibbs joked at the end of his daily briefing with reporters Monday: “Will you — will you — will you please pass that directly to the queen for me?”