Confederate Flag Discussion Distracts From Major Issues Facing Our Nation

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In case you have been hiding under a rock the last few weeks a mentally unstable young man entered a black church in South Carolina and killed 9 African-Americans. It was later discovered that Dylann Roof was a white supremacist with pictures found of him in front of the Confederate flag. Since then there has been a national debate about whether or not the confederate flag should come down from the South Carolina statehouse, which finally happened today.

Whether you see the Confederate flag as a symbol of hatred and racism, or of heritage and history, what we must realize is that this issue doesn't really affect most of us. Every day this story  has been the top of every news hour, and each day more important issues continue to be ignored. Why? Because they don't bring as much emotion to our hearts and excitement to our minds. Those in the news industry care more about the money they can make by talking about sensationalist stories rather than more pressing issues.

While the U.S. has been surrounded by news about the Confederate flag, major issues loom over the horizon. Our national debt has recently passed the $18.3 trillion mark. It is inexcusable for us to continue in a path that puts our spending on the backs of our children and grandchildren. If we were really paying attention to the news we would see the real effects of this debt on a nation as we observe Greece fall to pieces. Not to mention the increasing threat of a new financial crisis and our inability to handle it.

Not only should we be concerned about our national debt, but we should have concern for the labor market, which still faces record low labor participation rates, meaning that the fewest percentage of working age adults are currently working or seeking for work in decades. The 5.3% U3 number we hear on the news only includes part of the total number of unemployed persons, more than likely our real unemployment is at least 10%. We also fail to  realize that over 300,000 jobs that were created in the last year were in the food service industry and that wages have stagnated for years.

We are also in the midst of preparing for the campaign to elect the next president of our country. Many are getting distracted by flashy populist statements without considering fully where each individual stands on the issues. I recommend you visit the site ISideWith.com , and take their quiz to see who you side with on the issues.

During the flag debate we also saw Congress give President Obama massive amounts of leeway on trade issues by granting him Trade Promotion Authority, or Fast Track as it is also known. This version of Fast Track doesn't do nearly enough to put in place Congressional oversight over trade pacts that are in the works like the TPP and TTIP. Many have concerns over how these deals will take place, but the media has paid hardly any attention to these deals.

Even with this debate, the real issue we should be discussing is the need to reform the treatment of mental health in our nation, to help prevent tragedies like this from happening again because I can guarantee the real cause wasn't the Confederate flag.

We need to wake up as a nation and not be sucked as deeply into debates that have little real impact on the daily lives of most Americans. We cannot continue to be sucked into sensationalist stories and debates when there are more impactful issues that surround us on every side.