Distractions

What do the following have in common? "Death panels", "The Party of No!", "Save Social Security," government bail outs, Sarah Palin's latest gaffe, the Birther Movement, WikiLeaks, earmarks, "Death Taxes", opinion polls, "Don't Touch My Junk!", "dropping babies", Wall Street bonuses, "socialism," and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

Despite their seeming diversity, they all share one thing: these topics and the seemingly endless coverage they get in the media distract us from things that matter much more to the long-term strength of our society. Some of the distractions have no or very little basis in truth - the health care reform package never proposed or included panels that would decide if you got life-saving medical care. Some of them are factually grounded - Wall Street bonuses are real and can be counted. Many of the distractions raise truly legitimate concerns - WikiLeaks may well do damage to our foreign affairs. But they are distractions nonetheless in that they are blips on the public policy screen which stir the emotions but do little to help us deal with more substantive, underlying problems. None of them will come close to addressing our budget deficit, long-term debt, unemployment, economic growth, educational challenges, environmental degradation, infrastructure needs and the threat of terrorism or war.

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