I'll admit, it is slightly humorous and I snickered when I first saw it. However, I completely disagree with its message of "not caring" about current events.
I saw one person on facebook say he was "patriotically avoiding celebrity news." I guess you could call Kate and William celebrities, as much as you could call the Queen a celebrity, or President Obama a celebrity. They are celebrities in the fact that they are famous/popular. But they are also current (or future) government leaders and representatives of their country. Though Kate and William may seem like just another celebrity couple to us, therefore making their baby news seem like an out-of-proportion fad, someday William will be King of the United Kingdom. After that, his son will be.
Just because we are no longer a colony of England we should not care about its future leaders? If we should not care about the future King of the United Kingdom, why do we care about the leaders of other countries at all? Why do we go out of our way to get rid the world of tyrants or encourage democracy in countries that we don't have as much of a tie to as England? For many of us, our ancestors came from England, and even if we are glad to be no longer a part of that country, to have our own government system, and to be "independent," does that mean we should completely ignore historic events that are happening right around us? That's what this moment is -- it is history. No, people in the United States won't be much affected by the birth of Kate and William's baby, and may not even be much affected when he actually becomes king, so no, we don't need to be obsessed with what is going on. But that doesn't mean we should not "care" or worse, be unaware of what is happening. I know it is hard to imagine anyone being unaware of what just took place overseas, but there are at least a few people I have heard about who have not been following (or been "forced" to hear) the updates on the situation.
Even after we gained independence from England, we were obsessed with what they were doing. When I was doing a project about Washington Irving in the spring, this became apparent. Read some literature from that time -- after the war of 1812 was over, and people could start travelling to England again, lots of writers visited "the land of their fathers" and wrote travelogues and other stories that focused on England. There was conflict between wanting to form our own nation and looking back to where we came from. We were glad for independence, but we used England -- reluctantly sometimes -- as a guide for how to start our own country. Not in regard to the government system, but in other ways. We still cared about what was going on there.
I think it is fine to care about what is going on in other parts of the world. In fact, I think we should at least KNOW what is going on in the world. Sometimes the United States takes actions in those other places that I think are overstepping our bounds or are completely wrong, but the actions we take aside, at least being aware of what is going on may help us be a little less self-centered.
Plus, do we say to other people: "Well, I'm not a part of your family, so I don't really care about your sister's baby?" No, we say: "Oh, that's nice that's she's having a baby, hope it all goes well." Even when we meet people we don't know in Walmart with little children, we act sweetly toward the kids when they wave or say hello to us, or we tell the moms how cute their babies are (well, some people do). A baby is a baby, something to be thankful for. My kids are likely not going to be awaited with bated breath and shown on the news, but they also aren't going to be future kings or queens. So, I'm cool with that, and I'm fine with "caring" about Kate and William's baby. The difference is "caring" versus being obsessed with it. It's fair for their family, and probably their whole country, to be very interested in the birth of a future leader. Probably not so justified for me. I'm not obsessed, but with a family member and a close friend both giving birth this summer, it is not like I'm going to say that the "royal" baby should not be celebrated just as much as I am celebrating the babies in my life.
One last argument I've heard: that the baby news has been reported before news about disasters or other more pressing situations. Probably news of the royal baby shouldn't be placed above certain other important news, but this news is also important -- it is future history, and it's something happy. How often to we get to hear about happy things in the news anymore? I for one am glad to have something to be interested in that is a good thing. That doesn't mean I will ignore or forget the bad things, but it makes for a balance, at least.
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