Kindly Shut up About the Obama "Selfie"

Today, many of the world's leaders made their way to South Africa to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela. The coverage of the event, as you might expect, flooded the internet, television, and other traditional mediums. President Obama gave a moving, forceful speech that, admittedly, wasn't without tinges of hypocrisy or irony, but overall, gave the impression it needed to.

In the true fashion of 21st century media, however, it's not the life of Nelson Mandela, unarguably one of the world's great leaders, that's being talked about. It's not his achievements. It's not even President Obama's speech being picked apart; that might almost be understandable given his own policies and things said in his speech. Instead, it's a "selfie" the president took with British PM David Cameron and Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt. I get that snapping a "selfie"--and please, note my distaste for using that pseudo-language--in this context is strange, but people of the world, kindly shut up about it.

Focus on Nelson Mandela
Does snapping a picture truly constitute something more important than the life of a human being who spent his short existence trying to make the world better? I hesitate to ask the question as, ostensibly, more people expressed their sadness over the death of actor Paul Walker via Facebook and Twitter than even bothered to make a mention of somebody who literally changed the fate of millions of people. How about some priorities? How about some perspective?

Realize the Nature of the Event
This wonderful peace from The Blaze is not unique in its coverage of the whole affair. "How dare he take a picture at a funeral?" they ask, disbelief drooling from their maws. The comments are a whole other story. The "selfie"--god, I hate that word-- is being linked to pathological lying, chronic narcissism, and everything else. Granted, those traits may or may not be there, but it's not too hard to see that correlations are being drawn where there are none.

I'd wager that a large percentage of the people flaming, fuming, guffawing, and other verbs at this whole situation are completely unfamiliar with the tone, the overall mood, of the Mandela celebrations. People were dancing, singing, clapping, and shouting. Why? Because they were celebrating the life of a great person. The mood was of revelry, not sadness. This wasn't a funeral; it was a party meant to see beyond the pain and rejoice in a person's accomplishments. So, please, save the indignation for when it's warranted.

Speaking of...
My biggest gripe with the situation is that we're ignoring all the bigger issues to talk about something which, at the end of the day, doesn't matter. Say, for the sake of argument, this photograph is in any way reprehensible. Even if that is the case, how does it affect any of us? Is that photo a government entity spying on everything you do? Is it helping or hurting the cause of gender and sexual equality in the country? How about the income gap; is it fixing that huge economic blight?

It doesn't matter.

In the end, it's a fool who looks for a fight, a problem, where there is none. Believe me; I've been that fool many times. Undoubtedly, the POTUS has some things to be criticized over, but overshadowing a day meant for celebrating a singular individual and sweeping the real dirt under the rug for the sake of political indignation is an insult and a waste of time.