Queen visits U.S. to celebrate anniversary of colony

[Powerhouse]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/03/queen.visit.ap/index.html

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, are scheduled to arrive in Virginia Thursday to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony.

Thousands of people are expected to jam Richmond's Capitol Square on Thursday for a glimpse of the British Royals.

In Richmond, the queen is expected to address Virginia's General Assembly and meet 100-year-old civil rights lawyer Oliver W. Hill Sr., whose litigation helped produce the 1954 Supreme Court decision ending racial segregation in public schools.

She also plans to have a private audience with survivors of last month's massacre at Virginia Tech university and families of some of the 32 who were slain.

On Thursday evening, the queen was expected to take a horse-drawn carriage through Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia's capital until then-Gov. Thomas Jefferson and the legislature fled to Richmond to elude British capture in the Revolutionary War.

On Friday, she is to tour the site where, 400 years ago, Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in America. The royal couple are due at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and will visit President George W. Bush in Washington next week.

She will also visit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the National World War II Memorial in Washington before heading home on Tuesday.

Richmond officials have spent days frantically preparing for their first royal visit.

British, U.S. and state security teams began securing Capitol Square and streets around it Wednesday while work crews erected video screens the size of stadium scoreboards so the masses outside will be able to see the queen's speech to a joint session of the Senate and House of Delegates.

For much of Richmond's downtown work force, the queen's visit means a day off, and many will spend it on the Capitol's sloping South Lawn before her mid-afternoon arrival listening to musical acts as diverse as jazz ensembles, a marching band and Grammy-winning bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.

Queen's visit good for business

In the former Confederate capital, a favored venue for history buffs, British flags sprouted everywhere this week and business began picking up. Virginia is learning what Londoners have always known: Britain's royals create big tourism bucks.

"We're running specials on cottage pie, bangers 'n' mash, fish and chips," said Terry O'Neill, owner of the Beatles-influenced Penny Lane Pub in Richmond.

"You'd think the queen was going to walk in here tomorrow and say `Party of four, please."'

Across downtown, the River City Diner and its hard-partying younger clientele planned to mark the day with the alcohol-rich "Royal Cape Shooter."

A large sign beckoned Her Majesty with the invitation, "QUEEN EATS FOR FREE."

State officials, however, took pains to steer the royal entourage clear of the juncture of Main and 15th streets, a few blocks from the Capitol.

There, two stories high and covering the outside brick wall of a strip club, is a fading black-and-white painting of her late daughter-in-law, Princess Diana.


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[Kandi]

I heard somewhere that this is only the fourth time she has visited the states since she took the throne. Amazing, but I guess she's pretty busy. I was thrilled that she was "in residence" when I was over there, so the changing of the guard was quite spectacular as well as the "royal mail delivery". But it would have been nice had she not been in residence so I could have toured the palace.

I've been to Colonial Williamsburg as well. It's quite an interesting place. When the kids were little we did all "educational" vacations. They thought it was boring as hell at the time, but now they recount all the interesting places they've been and the things they've seen. So I think it paid off. I'd love to go back to Williamsburg though sans ex-husband since he was a boorish kinda person. There was so much I would have participated in had he not been there.

With the Queen visiting, I bet things are really all out. They dress in costume anyway, but I bet right now it's top of the line. Shoot, wish I was there.

[mivona]

There is such a split in this country, with some being ardent royalists and others utterly dismissive of the whole thing.

I'm somewhere inbetween those two polarities. I find the adulation of someone with so much inherited wealth rather bemusing. She might be a nice enough person (or perhaps not, if some reports are to be believed), but the idea of someone and her family just living off the nation in an incredible lifestyle simply because of her parentage is just daft. Archaic. It seems strange to have such a relict of an outdated social structure remains such a focal point of national identity.

As a consequence of her persistence in the national psyche, in a couple of weeks I will be forced to "affirm my allegiance" to Liz and her kin, as I finalise my application for British nationality. Colleagues intend to attend my citizenship ceremony sockless, a la Einstein, in modest protest at the silliness of the oath or affirmation of allegience to such an archaic institution.

[Kandi]

Oh too cool. I just assumed you were a British citizen. Never thought to think otherwise. You actually have to affirm your allegiance. You're right, it is a bit archaic. But interesting nonetheless.

[Powerhouse]

It may be weird sounding, but I like knowing that a place like Britan still has a queen that the country holds in respect. I'm sure she is not perfect of course, but in this topsy-turvy world of consistently negative changes it is comforting to know that somewhere there is some stability and respect for the ways of old - some permenance.

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[Kandi]

Although I'm not sure I would like living in a country with a Queen, I do find it a very interesting thing. I'm with you Powerhouse...it's nice to see at least one country who keeps to the old ways. I always hated history growing up, maybe because we were mostly pounded with only Alabama history. I always love to read about kings, queens and how things were. When I visited England in November I just loved seeing the palace and all the ceremony. It was just very interesting how things stood on ceremony and were done the way they've always been done. Even the smaller ceremonies such as the handing over of the keys at night for the London Tower Bridge, or the inspection of the Queen's Life Guards (mounted guards). I like tradition and they are rich in tradition.

[mivona]

It's tradition, but it is not really connected with life today. It is a pastiche, tradition without relevance or meaning anymore, just an entertaining sideshow or pop tradition.

On one hand, it is interesting to have the wealth of history. The fabulous buildings, the incredible riches, art and artifacts are all amazing. But the pomp and ceremony seems so utterly devoid of any resonance with modern life or ordinary British people.

The role of the monarchy is seems to be merely to perpetuate itself, to fulfil a constitutional role that could just as easily be done by any automaton. The royal family is simply soap opera entertainment, combined with occasional ritualistic engagements. Once upon a time, all of the activities of the monarch might have provided some sense of national cohesion and identity, but only a fraction of the population now relate to royalty in that way.

The Changing of the Guards is kept on as entertainment for tourists, and it seems to me like so much of the cult of royalty is around the entertainment value of watching them living an unreal and disconnected existence. I have been here for nearly 30 years now, and the difference between how the Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilees were treated provides evidence of the increasing irrelevance to people's lives. For the first one, street and village parties were held, a riverside walk was created in London, she officially opened a multitude things created in her honour and it was news. For the second one, it was merely commentary, with a few pockets of activity, and I cannot remember a single "Golden Jubilee" thing in London. The Millenium was far more important as a national focus.

It's sideshow. Heritage sideshow.

[kailin]

Colleagues intend to attend my citizenship ceremony sockless, a la Einstein, in modest protest at the silliness of the oath or affirmation of allegience to such an archaic institution.

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wish I could be there too, ugly toes and all :1chirol_r

But seriously, does this mean you also get an EU passport?????