I did not know this bit of 9/11 history:
https://twitter.com/lyndseyfifield/status/1436462207563452417
The day The Queen sang the American national anthem in solidarity with the victims of 9/11
When the UK national anthem is played, The Queen stands as the public sings to her. She doesn’t sing a national anthem; she is The Queen. However, one occasion had such an impact, that Her Majesty broke with her tradition and sang the American national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”
The occasion was the memorial service held at St Paul’s Cathedral for the victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. As she does not sing anthems, when “The Star Spangled Banner” was played in the cathedral, she joined in and was later seen wiping a tear from her eye.
That is an amazing show of solidarity between two nations over a tragedy that changed the course of world history.
I wanted to add, but I didn’t want to put it in the original post, that this makes Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan so much worse because 20 years later the way he withdrew pissed off the British and harmed relations between out countries.
The world will lose a legend when she passes.
It’s part of the family way of doing things, at least up to that point. Somehow I can’t see Charles acting with such class.
As an example: during WW2, there was a suggestion made that the princess (Elizabeth) and probably also the Queen (wife of king George VI) should flee to Canada. The reply came back: “The princess won’t leave if the queen does not; the queen will not leave without the king; and the king will not leave under any circumstance whatsoever.”
I remember reading that ‘it was akin to a mother singing a lullaby to her wounded child as he fitfully lay in bed’.
There are things about Britain that irritate me, and things I like, but one can never forget that there is a good chunk of our DNA — racial, cultural, and historical — that is British.