Pom in Oz with Derek Goforth: Why it’s OK to feel pride and shame over Queen Elizabeth II’s passing & funeral

I didn’t think I would watch it, but I did. I thought I would only tune it for a few minutes, be turned off by the expense and pomposity of the event and turn off in disgust, but I didn’t. I watched in awe, wonderment and had too many uncomfortable moments to count. At the same time I felt pride and I felt shame. I could not really explain why this was as I absorbed what I was seeing unfold during the Queen’s funeral. But then I glanced over a Facebook post from a friend of mine. His stage name is Joe Solo (he is a singer/songwriter). He said: “Britain is a land of contradictions. Last week I heard a well-known broadcaster say it was built by compromise. That’s just not true. Britain was built by war, exploitation, invasion, theft, slavery, piracy and class conflict. Yet it was also built by hard work, ingenuity, sacrifice, courage, steadfastness and hope. That is why it is perfectly natural to feel both pride and shame simultaneously, and why attempting to hold a position built on either unquestioning nationalism or hand-wringing liberalism is doomed to failure. It is OK to love this place and want to change it at the same time. In fact, you NEED both. If you cling to the past you’ll ultimately end up with a country impossible to love. If you don’t understand the sentimental attachment to this island, then you’ll never rally enough people to change it for the better. It’s a historic day today no matter which side you’re on. That isn’t compromise, that’s consciousness.’ To me this summed it up perfectly — the duality of feelings of a nation. Yes, there were countless people lining the streets, but I am sure just as many if not more chose to ignore the event in its entirety. Yes, I was in awe of the architecture of the palaces, Westminster Abbey and the surrounding buildings, but reminded myself of the thousands of people out of the street in the cold every night. Yes, the millions of pounds spent produced a fantastic display of pageantry and ceremony, but how many other ways could that money have been spent? To invest in the nation’s health care? Its schools? A million different places, especially in a cost-of-living crisis. OK, I admired the stiff upper lip of the royals, especially the ones closest to the Queen, but I also felt for all those that would have died alone, afraid and without the comforts afforded to the Queen. I saw so many similarities between my home nation and my adopted nation of Australia. A country built on exploitation and on hard work. A nation founded on the hope of freedom and prosperity but with a dark history. I honestly think it’s OK to both love and feel shame for our home nations. If we don’t feel love we won’t seek change and if we don’t acknowledge the shame we will not see the need for moving forward in acceptance and forgiveness. Derek Goforth is a teacher at Geraldton Christian College