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To a country that expelled British troops more than two centuries ago and has long touted its democratic values, some of the mourning for Queen Elizabeth II seemed, perhaps, a little bit overwrought.
She was, first of all, almost a century old, and had lived a life of luxury that few of us can imagine. Elizabeth was also a monarch in an age when the power of most kings and queens has -- thankfully, it must be said -- been whittled down.
Still, the mourning for Elizabeth was also quite understandable. For the British and all the nations within the Commonwealth -- she was also the queen of Australia, Canada, Jamaica and other countries -- the monarchy has been a bedrock of stability and tradition.
So, it can seem a little bit discordant right now for anyone to sound a dissenting note. But there have been scattered arrests in Britain of people holding up signs urging that the monarchy be abolished, or shouting their opposition to the crown. A 45-year-old man was arrested in Oxford, England, after he yelled "Who elected him?" at an announcement that King Charles III had ascended to the throne. A 22-year-old woman was arrested for holding up a placard denouncing imperialism and the monarchy.
Certainly part of the problem is that the United Kingdom does not have a written constitution that would guarantee a right to free speech. The country has long operated instead on tradition and history. The British people would be wise to have their rights codified.
Closer to home, a Carnegie Mellon University linguistics professor who hails from Nigeria got into hot water when she identified the queen in a tweet as "the chief monarch of a thieving, raping genocidal empire" and wished that her death be "excruciating."
Some people suggested Anya should be fired. She shouldn't be. She was expressing her own views, no matter how disrespectful or tactless.
At a moment like this, we need to remember an observation by George Orwell, another great Briton: "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people things they do not want to hear."