From swine flu to Islam Day, we’re losing our perspective

Everybody needs a little perspective.

Swine flu has only killed a few American citizens in the weeks since it became around-the-clock news. While those deaths are regrettable, the issue demands context.

More than 200,000 persons are hospitalized for flu-related complications each year. About 36,000 Americans die on average per year from the complications of flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

So what are we really talking about?

While H1N1 dominates the airwaves and steals our attention, big things are happening.

In Pakistan, the country’s military is at war with Taliban militants, with only a nuclear arsenal at stake. America is still embroiled in two wars and the economy remains in shambles as millions of unemployed wait for the stimulus’ projected benefits to roll in.

And we’re talking about some sick pigs?

Here in Hawai‘i, a similar red herring has distracted us this week from the big picture. Islam Day.

Didn’t our extraordinarily busy state legislators have bigger fish to fry during the final days of the 2009 legislative session? In fact, weren’t they so incredibly busy that they were forced to extend the session for two days? And this is what they’re over there debating about?

Without getting into specific bills we think could have been handled better, we point out that these leaders were tasked with making up a $2 billion budget shortfall. Shouldn’t they have been holed up in the library with their calculators instead of talking about the merits of a non-binding resolution that essentially does nothing?

We’ll play along, though, and lay out another reason why the resolution to celebrate Islam Day on Sept. 24 is a bad idea.

What ever happened to the separation of church and state? While resolutions like this one do not necessarily establish one faith as the state’s official practice, it does blur the lines by honoring one and not the others, or by honoring faith at all at the expense of the faithless.

It makes us wish our government would keep itself completely uninvolved from all aspects of religion.

We have nothing against Islam as a faith or against the Muslim people. It is not about bigotry or hatred or xenophobia. It’s about the bigger picture.

We need to seek out the information that is most critical and leave the other distractions behind. There are big things happening in our world, our country, our state and our island. Do you know what they are?

So please, skip the stories about the swine flu “pandemic” and Islam Day arguments and wrap your heads around the big issues. We know they’re less flashy, and sometimes difficult to understand, but they are the stories that really matter.