We Don't Care Anymore

So are we all done talking about LeBron James? Because I was done talking about it hours before the announcement, when it was revealed that not only had LeBron made plans to celebrate his decision in South Beach but also that LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh supposedly had planned this whole thing two years ago when they were on the U.S. Olympic team.

So no, I didn't watch the LeBron-a-thon last night on ESPN. "Wipeout" and "Rookie Blue" were on ABC, and that's appointment summer TV for me, but even if the competition came from "Big Brother" and "The Bachelorette", I wouldn't have watched. Nor will I watch the World Cup final. The U.S. was out weeks ago, I only care about soccer when the U.S. is playing, end of.

However, I DO care when we make national headlines here in Philadelphia for tragic reasons, but nobody HERE actually cares. When I heard about the duck boat crash on Wednesday, I flipped on the TV coverage and I wanted to see what was going on and if everyone was okay. Apparently, few others in this city did, because mere hours after the crash happened, "duck boat" fell off the local trending topics list on Twitter. Not to play the "American jingoism" card here, but I'm willing to bet the attention of Philadelphia fell off the moment we found out that most of the people on the boat were Hungarians. "Oh, no Americans in peril? Yeah, I don't care anymore... and besides, all those people quacking when the duck boat goes by is annoying. What else is on? Ooh, something about LeBron!"

Come on, Philadelphia, can't we pay attention to something that doesn't have to do with sports or pop culture for more than 10 minutes?!? And yes, I know, people die in this city almost everyday, but last I knew, they weren't tourists on a duck boat that stalled in the middle of the river and then got run over by a city barge. So the NTSB is going to investigate the ying-yang out of this tragedy... why there was no lookout on the barge, why some of the passengers didn't wear life jackets, whether or not the boat radioed for help before the barge hit it. I care about important news stories like this, but it is clear that I am in a shrinking minority, set against the backdrop of our world of 500 channels, 490 of which are all about cake competitions or midget wrestling or various Kardashians.

Which brings us to the larger theme of what we actually care about as a nation right now. We care about where LeBron James is playing basketball, we care about the Yankees playing "buy-a-championship" again by possibly getting Cliff Lee (although every year they do that, they seem to LOSE in the playoffs... note: they DID NOT make a deadline deal last year), and we care about who Lady GaGa pissed off this week. That's about it. Now contrast that with what people WANT us to care about. When these stories come up, we hear people say, "We should be talking about BP, we should be talking about immigration, we should be talking about the economy." That's code for "we should be blaming each other for the oil spill, the border crisis, and the economy." People are SICK of that, and the back-and-forth bitching and blaming in politics is precisely why people are tuning out and preferring to expend all their passion and energy on things like LeBron James and Lady GaGa. But once in a while, maybe we could take a few minutes to actually care when something happens that isn't political, is tragic, and (most importantly) happens in our own damn backyard.

And I also care why there is a lawyer in Philadelphia taking out full-page ads touting the fact that his name is... Justin Bieber. If I were this guy, I would be changing my name, at least for a few years to avoid the merciless ribbing he must get on a daily basis. But then again, he IS a lawyer, so he could probably sue anyone who really gave him a hard time about it, so therefore it's a ballsy move. Props to him.