Skewed Perspectives

Three major, major events occurred this week, and the blogosphere, cable news, and pundits are rushing to cover one of them with the fervor of born-again Christians during an election cycle.
The Syrian government launched chemical weapons against those attempting to overthrow the government. Mind you, more than 100,000 people have been killed in this internal strife since it began, and now the forces in power have begun killing ordinary citizens in a most out of the ordinary way...some might say a cruel and indefensible way. The red line drawn by our government was the use of chemical weapons: that final straw would force our hand into military action...proving yet agin that we learn lessons very slowly and at great cost. This is a major news story.
Fifty years ago on Wednesday, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial to a vast crowd, stirring the hopes of every African-American that some sort of equality could be had following all the racial violence in Birmingham and dozen of other Southern cities large and small. A proponent of peaceful resistance as a student of Mahatma Ghandi, King persevered through threats and actual violence but did not live to see the equality he hoped and prayed for. Even if he were alive today, I doubt that he would consider the situation a dream fulfilled. Make no mistake: bigotry exists in strong ways...now, however, it's not just the former slaves that have to endure the indignation of being second-class. This is a huge story.
Miley Cyrus performed at the Video Music Awards on Sunday night, and her twerking performance set the internet ablaze! How DARE Hannah Montana cavort like that on television? How could she do that to all the young girls who idolized her back in the early days? Commentators from serious news sources reported on this story like it was an assassination; well, maybe in a way, it was. However, giving this non-story the same kind of 24-7 coverage usually reserved for political sex scandals seems overdone.
Conme on, people, let's remember what's important here.