Senior government and politics and history major

Like many others, I was saddened to learn of the death of the baby panda at the National Zoo over the weekend. Story after story in The Washington Post helped sate my need to read about baby pandas, and helped me make sense of the tragic loss.

Status after status on Facebook mourned the passing, with one friend writing, “I hope mama panda will be ok 🙁 …I keep thinking about her over my homework!” I can’t help but worry for that friend’s homework — I know it’s impossible to get work done when you’re consumed with thoughts of pandas.

After a half-hour or so of reading similar expressions of grief, I realized I was over it. If we’re being honest, I don’t know that I care about baby pandas. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly depressing the baby panda died — especially considering the precarious nature of the world’s panda population — but there are more important things going on in the world that we should think about, too.

On Monday night, we saw a similar outpouring of passion and sadness on Facebook and Twitter as football fans struggled to understand just how NFL referees could suck so much. Presidents, would-be presidents and governors alike all had their moments in the sun, chastising the NFL for the referee foul-up. Piling on the referees was almost certainly the most popular thing Mitt Romney has ever done. (I would have joined him, but I don’t really understand football — or much of anything, really.)

In all of this hullabaloo, we’re losing sight of what’s truly important. How many people, upon hearing of the baby panda, worried for the decline of the panda population, or for the extinction of any species? When discussing the referee scandal, how many of us pinned the referees’ struggle as a union issue? How many of us watch football with an actual concern for the health and well-being of those playing the sport, or those enforcing the rules? When did these things actually start to concern the whole country?

As a country, I think we’ve stopped prioritizing things that really matter. Instead of talking about important national issues such as education, the economy and poverty, we’re all too willing to abandon these serious discussions in favor of worrying ourselves too much about pandas and referees.

As a nation in the midst of an election year, we’re facing a monumental choice in divergent ideas, candidates and visions for our future. How can we make such important decisions when we spend so much time fretting about pandas and referees? How many of the same people also go around saying, “I don’t know anything about politics; I’m not going to vote.”

There are complex and critical problems facing our nation — and the world — and we’re never going to get closer to solving them if we can’t get past the Style and Sports sections of The Washington Post. We must try harder to understand why things matter, so we as a country can take action on what matters.

Joshua Dowling is a senior government and politics and history major. He can be reached at dowling@umdbk.com.