Prince William presents a lesson we could stand to learn

I saw on the news the other day that England’s Prince William will be deployed to the Falklands for six weeks this coming January. I’m very impressed that the United Kingdom isn’t treating its royalty any different than its other enlisted individuals; I’m even more impressed that Prince William is refusing to avoid the deployment. His wife Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, is reportedly very supportive of her husband’s willingness to serve and is encouraging his continued pilot training.

That’s England for you.

Earlier this month, America’s Lindsay Lohan was ordered to serve 30 days for violating her probation (which probation? I’m not sure, because there have been so many). Not only was she allowed to show up for her jail time a week late because she was posing for a men’s magazine of ill repute, she stayed in prison nowhere near the 30 days assigned to her by a judge.

More like five hours. She went to jail at 8:50 p.m. and returned home at 2 a.m. She couldn’t stay in prison because it was “too crowded.”

That’s America for you.

While England is treating its royalty like regular individuals, America is treating its regular individuals like royalty. How about instead of letting this woman, who has repeatedly violated not only the law but her multiple sentences, stay in jail, and un-crowd the facility by letting the people who have been there more than five hours take an early recess?

What kind of a message are we sending to our children? If you have enough money, the law can’t touch you? Don’t worry - even though a judge might tell you that you need to stay in jail for 30 days, if you’ve made enough sub-par movies and posed for enough magazines to become a household name, you’ll be in and out in a day, free to continue on your merry way?

I am so glad that Prince William is setting such a great example to the people of his country. Not only is he obeying the law and staying above reproach, he is giving of his time to serve the people who serve him. Sounds to me like we have a thing or two to learn from our friends across the pond.