Dean Poling

Americans broke with the British monarchy in 1776.

Yet, nearly 250 years later, Americans are still connected to the British monarchy … at least sentimentally.

For anyone in their early 70s or younger, Queen Elizabeth II has been the only British monarch in memory.

That’s a whole lot of collective lifetimes.

She became queen when Winston Churchill was serving his second stint as British prime minister. Churchill seems like a character from some faraway past.

Yet, Churchill was very much alive and even in power on Feb. 6, 1952, when the 25-year-old Elizabeth became queen. Churchill, who was in his late 70s, referred to her as “only a child.”

Yet, many of us grew from being “only a child” to teens to young adults to being in our prime then middle-aged and older – all while Elizabeth was queen.

And again, while we’re Americans, and she was the living symbol of Britain, Queen Elizabeth II was engrained in our culture.

She was queen during the British invasion of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and so many other rock & roll bands coming from England to the United States in the 1960s and beyond.

Carol Burnett impersonated Queen Elizabeth in her popular variety TV show in the 1960s and ‘70s.

The queen loomed large backstage over the tabloid interest of her sister, her children and grandchildren and as part of the tragedy of Princess Diana.

She is the central character in the popular Netflix show “The Crown,” and subject of numerous other movies, books, series, etc.

All very British, all very American.

And she’s been there for every event that connects our nations for more than a dozen American presidents, for decades, for generations.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the queen ordered the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

She sang along to the American national anthem with thousands of other Brits during a 9/11 memorial service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

And now many Americans mourn her, or at least have thought about her and what it means to realize the British national anthem has changed within a day from “God Save the Queen” to “God Save the King.”

How did that American outpouring for a British monarch come to be?

How does a nation that celebrates every Fourth of July as its Independence Day from one nation remain so connected to that nation?

How does a country whose Declaration of Independence speaks of the British monarchy’s “repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States …” become fond of a British queen?

After all, we went to war with England for independence. The British sacked Washington, D.C., in the War of 1812.

But we became allies in World War I and even more so in World War II. There is the real partnership, though idealized and mythologized friendship, of Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War.

There is the shared language, the shared culture, the shared history of being a part of the British Empire, breaking up, then partnering again and again.

And there is the story of a young woman who became queen at a time when Americans first purchased televisions for their homes.

She was not just a name in the headlines but a person, a mother, a young woman who entered their homes, via TV. A woman who had more children, who continued to rule, who continued to be shown on television, who continued to be there, over and over, through the long years.

For generations, as certain as the sky is blue, Elizabeth was the queen of England.

But that has changed.

Some may still wonder why all of the fuss here over a queen from over there.

But there’s a story here, a lesson, too.

Her passing emphasizes again that people who were once one can still form “a special relationship.”

That past animosities and remaining disagreements can be set aside for the common good.

Whether that is abroad or much closer to home.

Americans would do well to heed that lesson if we are to ask God to save us, as the British ask God to save the king.

Dean Poling is an editor with The Valdosta Daily Times and editor of The Tifton Gazette.