WASHINGTON D.C.—On Tuesday, I paused from my normally hectic schedule consisting of meetings, reviewing the news of the day, deciding which people I’ll be interviewing for the week, in order to hear one of the world’s greatest monarchs give an impassioned speech before the United Nations body discussing among other things, how the world has changed since the last time she spoke at the U.N. in 1957. Unlike the world’s young leaders today, who are baby boomers and children of baby boomers, Her Majesty spoke of the improvements the world has made since the founding of this venerable organization.

Surely the U.N. is far from perfect, but only naïve Americans who hate any international cooperation expect perfection within the organization. Surely things economically and even environmentally seem like they are teetering on the edge of disaster. However, what made this queen, who we all love and respect see the good in things today? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself for the past 20 years. Politics stink! Though to pretend that even in the 1800s the world’s leaders and politicians were not bickering and claiming the other party is evil is being naïve at our best and stupid at our worst.

Perhaps the people who like to proclaim that the nation and the world are much worse off than they were a half century or more ago are ignorant of recent history. In this queen’s lifetime, she’s seen World War II, the deaths of millions during that conflict, and in German and Polish concentration camps, she’s seen minor infections kill people because they could not afford or have access to medicines. She’s also seen dictators like Hitler and Stalin punish their own people and try to destroy the world, and she’s seen an economic system that once benefited only the wealthy, create one of the best job creation eras by industry in the history of the free world.

She spoke of challenges, but unlike the Tea Party, she didn’t spew hatred for those in which she differs in opinion. Unlike the Republican Party, she did not cast doubt on the credibility of people she also has differences with. Unlike the Democratic Party, she did not choose to vilify her enemies. Speaking before many Arab country diplomats, she knew that those men had no respect for her or even cared to see or hear her speak. Why did she do so anyway? Because she also remembers in her youth women in the West with the same level of disdain pointed against them when they also spoke truth to power. She did so, because she knows those outside of our beliefs need to hear the truth anyway.

Perhaps people like Queen Elizabeth have seen so much bad throughout the world in our recent past, that she and others like her are able to see the good we do have today in the civilized world. Perhaps she respects the relationships the United Kingdom now has with not just the United States, but France, Spain, Germany and Italy, all nations that once her great nation pointed swords and cannons toward?

Whatever it is, we sure need more leaders like Her Majesty the Queen in the world we live in today. It’s quite sad that we may never see or hear her again before the U.N. body in our lifetime. What a shame with each passing day, America and the world loses true leaders and diplomats who know the blessings we have today, when we have so many politicians preaching hatred, intolerance, bigotry and distrust.

Long live the Queen, and may her words spoken on American soil be heeded and listened to not only by our leaders but by us all.