PrintJuly 27, 2007
An Open Letter to Her Majesty, the Queen of England
When I got up the other day and read that Winston Churchill would be cut from the curriculum of secondary schools in England, I thought it was a joke. When I found out it was no joke, I thought "My old man (who enlightened me to the greatness of Churchill) is rolling over in his grave"
So I let him respond....
An Open Letter to Her Majesty, the Queen of England
Sorry to bother you Maam, I mean Your Majesty, (sorry I am an American from the South) something that has happened in your government that has saddened and outraged me in such a manner I felt compelled to write to you on this matter, though I have been dead for five years. I know it sounds crazy but this matter has upset me so badly, that I have invaded my son's consciousness and I am compelling him to write you.
My name is Donald L. Cox, I died in 2001, but that does not matter. What matters is that your government in its infinite wisdom has decided to delete Winston Churchill from your required secondary school curriculum. Winston Churchill! Get rid of the Battle of Hastings, Henry the Eighth, or the Black Plague, but Winston Churchill? Yes I know they got rid of Gandhi, Dr. King, and Hitler as well, but we all know they were all caught up in the collateral damage. The real target was Churchill. It was said to make way for teaching Global Warming, drug use dangers and being better global citizens, but I ask you Your Majesty, how can you let them do it? You were there, Majesty. You lived it.
I was a boy when it started and I saw a lot of people I knew go off to that war and never come back. My other hero was my Uncle Russell; he was scrawny and in his later years my family knew him to be a bit eccentric. But I knew him for what defined him and his generation. He was a bona fide hero. He hit the beaches at D-Day plus four and carried his M1 all the way to Germany, stepping over the bodies of those that gave their "last full measure" for freedom.
As I read everything I could about that war, I realized My Uncle and the heroes like him, would not have put aside their lives for a few years and gone out and saved the world had it not been for a tiny island nation of lions that, when given the choice (and they had a choice, believe me), of giving up their Honor or their Empire, roared so fiercely that Liberty and Honor would have to be pried from the dead hands of every man woman and child on the island. The world took notice.
The voice of the British people was fierce, resolute and defiant. That voice, your Majesty, was Winston Spencer Churchill.
As I read everything I could about that war, I realized My Uncle and the heroes like him, would not have put aside their lives for a few years and gone out and saved the world had it not been for a tiny island nation of lions that, when given the choice (and they had a choice, believe me), of giving up their Honor or their Empire, roared so fiercely that Liberty and Honor would have to be pried from the dead hands of every man woman and child on the island. The world took notice.
The voice of the British people was fierce, resolute and defiant. That voice, your Majesty, was Winston Spencer Churchill.
To know what a remarkable man Churchill was you cannot just study his glorious virtues and accomplishments, you have to look at his failures, vices and shortcomings as well, knowing the true paradox that was Churchill. His personal history makes his feat of injecting resolve into a country with no hope all that more remarkable.
One of the few things my boneheaded son did right was read about Churchill. I guess he got tired of me telling him, so he went out and read everything about the man and just about everything the man wrote. He knows a lot about him, so I have allowed him to put my thoughts into his words, but make no mistake about it, your Majesty, these are my thoughts.
One of the few things my boneheaded son did right was read about Churchill. I guess he got tired of me telling him, so he went out and read everything about the man and just about everything the man wrote. He knows a lot about him, so I have allowed him to put my thoughts into his words, but make no mistake about it, your Majesty, these are my thoughts.
My son has to go to work now, so I guess I have to leave his thoughts alone because he has a hard time multi-tasking. But before I go, Your Majesty, I beg you, I implore you, do not let the modern day Halifax's and Chamberlain's marginalize Churchill, as their ilk in the past tried to do. I know that your throne today is largely ceremonial, but you still have influence over millions. And if I may be so familiar to say, you have pluck as well.
For my Uncle Russell and all those lions lying in their graves over in Europe, do not let this stand. We Americans could dump all the tea of England in Boston Harbor, but we would never dump Churchill. Can Britain?
For my Uncle Russell and all those lions lying in their graves over in Europe, do not let this stand. We Americans could dump all the tea of England in Boston Harbor, but we would never dump Churchill. Can Britain?
Respectfully,
Donald L. Cox, deceased; transcribed for me by my son Dan Cox, I hope he didn't muddle it up.
