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More royally-induced angst
From Citizen Co-Founder Larry Platt
The Citizen’s Larry Platt offers his take on why the media fuss around Queen Elizabeth II’s passing is not just a guilty distraction from daily life in America — but is antithetical to what our country fought for — and who we risk being again.
“The British monarchy is not merely symbolic,” he writes, “It’s a values system — one that doubles down on inequality. And now that autocracy is on the rise at home and abroad, it may just be medicinal for the body politic to keep our founding values in mind.” Read it all here.
In CitizenCast
The Citizen’s podcast version of Ali Velshi’s reminder: British tradition, its fanfare, pomp and circumstance, may be lovely. But the monarchy’s history of colonialism is decidedly not so. Here’s to making new history.
Listen:
Ali Velshi on the British Empire’s brutal legacy
You may love the pomp and circumstance surrounding Queen Elizabeth II's passing, but you cannot love the monarchy's legacy the world over.
Ali Velshi on the British Empire’s brutal legacy
You may love the pomp and circumstance surrounding Queen Elizabeth II's passing, but you cannot love the monarchy's legacy the world over.
It’s been many days, now, since the death of Queen Elizabeth II and ensuing royal ceremonies began dominating television news. MSNBC host and Citizen Board Member Ali Velshi says with the sovereign’s passing comes the passing of “the Commonwealth,” a group of nations around the world “created as a vehicle to preserve Britain’s influence.”
Among these Commonwealth nations, Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda are considering officially withdrawing from their allegiance to the British crown, just as Barbados recently did.
This shift away from the monarchy is a good thing, says Velshi. “The British Empire was brutal,” leaving behind not national or cultural pride, but the legacy of colonization, economic exploitation, violence, bloody wars, racism and slavery. At one point, Great Britain reigned over one-fifth of the world’s surface and one quarter of its population. In the future, perhaps it will rule its own people, full stop.
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