Now, all that racial/rape/etc news...I beg to differ on how important of a "national issue" those things are and I think it's safe to tune those out. But some things you should pay attention to.
Was the civil rights movement of the sixties something that you think it would have been okay to tune out? Because that's what this is shaping up to resemble. 130 mile marches, civil disobedience, coordinated protests.....sounds familiar doesn't it?
I dunno, I could buy that this is bread and circuses and that the public has just been demanding more serious-minded bread and circuses lately. So that it doesn't feel so much like bread and circuses. Sure they're important issues, but because of the historical precedent the response also has an easy-to-follow pattern that doesn't take too much effort.
I had a history teacher in highschool point out that the flag-burning scandal was big news during the iran-contra scandal, which was what people should have really been upset about. Even though the whole flag-burning thing is an important discussion about rights. So whenever something is in focus in the news, I ask myself, "What could this be a distraction from?"
Update: seeing your follow-up comment, Morfas, I realize I was not interpreting "non-issue" as you meant it. You mean you don't think racism is a thing anymore, so that's a disagreement about the interpretation of the events.
As someone who has been following this closely (lots of reading, researching, questioning, thinking, and discussing), there appears to have developed three distinct, but occasionally overlapping viewpoints (obviously I'm missing a lot of details here, I'm just trying to summarize)...
Liberal Democrats - seem to be focusing on the social injustice aspect
Libertarian Republicans - seem to be focusing on the abuse of government authority aspect
Vanilla Republicans - if you respect those with authority none of this would be a problem
You're absolutely right about this, and what I find interesting (and disturbing) is that people are polarized along political lines...even though this isn't really a political issue. It makes me wonder how many liberals argue the social injustice just because they think they're supposed to...and how many republicans are just parroting the "company line" that you shouldn't resist arrest. Can nobody think for him/herself anymore?
In addition to the 'flag-burning' mental test, I have the 'do I agree with all of my facebook friends about an issue' test. And if so, it might be time to question my thinking. Unfortunately that also brings up the, 'do all of my facebook friends agree with each other' test, which in many cases, except for that one aunt who hates Obama, I fail. It's an indication that I need to broaden my range of friends. But in this case it could also be a case of regional political correctness in that no one disagreeing with the social justice angle (except for that one aunt) wants to post about it. Indeed, my first conversation on Monday was with a co-worker who immediately pulled out the 'ALL lives matter' and 'it's not a race issue it's a class issue' arguments.
Anyway so maybe in this anonymous venue I can finally confess: I buy that racism is a thing, both from experimental evidence and statistics, and that confronting racism is really important, I just don't think Eric Garner is a good example to rally behind. The rule of law, as opposed to military, requires that people submit to police. That is not the same thing as submitting to the state. You can fight in the courts; you can not fight the police. The moment of arrest is not the time to argue your rights. He was resisting arrest. Yes, he wasn't being threatening and yes the chokehold is not a sanctioned move, but cops do not yet have the technology to subdue people by enveloping them in harmless rainbow-flavored jell-o or whatever. A physical altercation always carries risks so when you resist arrest you are taking your life in your hands for no possible benefit. No cop has ever said, "Oh, gosh, I didn't realize how much this person didn't want to be arrested. I guess they have a good point and I'll be on my way."
Someone on my facebook feed is a music teacher in an elementary school and had the kids writing protest songs because, 'a police officer killed a man.' And of course because he's a bleeding heart liberal, he's teaching in the impoverished inner-city so he's influencing the very kids who most need to learn effective, positive ways to interact with cops and are most at risk from having an adversarial attitude towards them. Kids who grew up where I did, middle-class whitebred suburbs where the adults don't care quite so fiercely about social justice, are still learning the respectful model of interacting with cops which will save their lives when they decide in college to join protest rallies.