When you look up the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Google, you are presented with a span of time from Sept. 8 through Sept. 19. At first glance to anyone who is not familiar with the processes involved with laying a British monarch to rest, this may be confusing. However, for anyone unaware, the nation was all but shut down for those 11 days in order to mourn the death of the long serving queen.

Within those days I remember sitting at my desk in the newspaper office rattling off orders to my copy editors when I got the notification that all Premier League soccer games would be postponed for at least the next week as there would not be enough police to staff games. That means my routine of getting up bright and early on Saturday mornings, making coffee and sitting on my couch to watch my team that I have supported since I was six, was canceled

Reading this news made my mouth drop open. I thought to myself, “How on Earth is there not enough police in the entire sovereign state of England to staff soccer games?” Then I saw the pictures. Pictures of what looked like small armies walking in solidarity alongside this wagon that I could only assume the queen was within. At this point my dropped open mouth was joined by a distasteful frown.

   This opinion is in no way fueled by my postponed weekend ritual but by pure confusion. I understand that she was the longest serving monarch, and I get that she did some things that people hold in high regard, however, the fact of the matter is that the tradition is ridiculous. What does marching throughout the country with a corpse in tow do for anyone? What does this display matter to the soccer players who were supposed to travel this week back to their home nations to play international friendlies but are now trapped in the country because the U.S. Embassy in England was closed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth?

No one person, no matter how important, is worth closing an entire nation. The queen was merely the head of state, held relatively no power and whose family was more akin to that of the Kardashians than that of a ruling family during her last few years. There comes a time when traditions need to be, if not ended, amended. While the royal family has every right to mourn, disrupting the lives of people all over the world in order to do so is simply wrong and egotistical.

Photo by Romeo via Pexels