Opinion: Prince Harry

After finishing yesterday's inaugural blog post, Marissa and I settled in to watch the episode of 20/20 we'd been DVRing. Just the fact that there was something interesting to watch on TV last night made it something of a banner evening. We even celebrated by ordering in some Thai food. Since I'm sure anyone reading is now green with envy at the thrilling life of glamor, action and international intrigue I lead, I'll quit my bragging.

Anyway, I actually don't like 20/20 very much, and I think Barbara Walters is bordering on insufferable. (Note to self: write a future blog post on the horror that is "The View".) But last night's episode was an "in-depth exclusive" on Britain's Royal Family. Apparently, 20/20's cameras were given "unprecedented access" into the lives of the Family (should this word be capitalized?) for a year. Mostly this was schlock, and my general opinions are as follows: Prince Charles is still a total dweeb, Camilla is even uglier and bears a remarkable resemblance to some of the Royal Family's horses, the queen is amusing when she gets irritated, Helen Mirren is an a fantastic actress who absolutely nailed her performance in last year's The Queen, and the diplomats and heads of state of Ghana are in dire need of some advice on fashion protocol (seriously, this one dude was wearing this traditional African robe thing that was slung over one shoulder, leaving his entire armpit exposed throughout an official state dinner at Buckingham Palace. I don't think I could have eaten.) Also, the fact that the British public keeps the Royals around is pretty unfathomable, considering they cost the taxpayers something in the neighborhood of $70 million a year.

The timing of this show though was interesting, coming just days after the revelation that Prince Harry, Charles's and Diana's son and third in the line of succession to the throne has been serving on the front lines in Afghanistan. If you've not been paying attention to this story, it goes something like this: Prince Harry completed his military training last year, and reportedly, he wanted to go serve in Iraq, but was not allowed to, since he and his fellow soldiers would have undoubtedly become a special target. For the last three months, he's been serving as a battlefield air controller in Afghanistan, with the full knowledge of the British press, who collectively agreed not to report on it at present, in return for getting open updates about his status, some interviews and video footage, etc., to report later on. Amazingly, this all held up until the Drudge Report published the secret last week. Harry has now been sent home, but he's said that he can't wait to get reassigned. If you want to read more about all this, go here.

I suppose this new development came too quickly for 20/20's producers to address it in much detail-- after all, they had a year's worth of "unprecedented access" that had probably already been cut and canned-- but Barbara did mention it near the end of the episode. It reminded me of something I'd been thinking about (actually two things, but the second is just that Prince Harry is obviously NOT Prince Charles's son. On "Real Time" last Friday they showed a picture of him next to Princess Diana's stableboy...). Since I heard about this story, it's struck me as somewhat amazing. I mean, here's a kid who has more money than God and can basically do whatever he wants with his life-- the Royal Family members are free to pursue whatever career they like, or spend their time doing charity work or whatever else a phenomenally wealthy Prince of the Empire might think up. And instead of finishing his military training and becoming some token officer in one of the armed forces, he actually angles to get on the front lines in a hot zone in the world and brokers a deal with a notoriously overeager press corps to ensure that he receives no special treatment at all. Apparently, his unit has come under fire on at least one occasion, and in all other ways is no different from any other serving in the field. When the news broke and the media finally descended on him, Harry admitted that he hadn't showered in four days. This just strikes me as an incredibly honorable and brave thing for a kid in his position to do, and I have a whole newfound respect for him and his stableboy dad.

[I'm about to get incredibly self-righteous, so you may want to stop reading if you've had a big lunch.]

This is especially true when seen from our point of view as Americans. How refreshing that in England, it's still looked at as honorable to serve your country as a normal soldier. Here in America, it's become a socially accepted fact of life that most children of privilege avoid military service, using any excuse available to them.

[Ugh, I'm starting to make my own skin crawl. I promise not to be so serious in the future.]