Independence Day has come and gone, the year 2011 is more than half over, and there’s lots of news that’s worthy of attention because of its global, national and local significance.

One example: Late last month a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in New York State was approved by a Republican-majority state senate and enthusiastically signed by a Democratic governor. In addition to bringing truly equal marital rights to the Empire State, the new law has already reverberated elsewhere.

“We intend to finish the job that we began in 2009 and bring marriage equality to Maine,” said Betsy Smith, executive director of Equality Maine, at a Lewiston news conference last Thursday in which she announced her organization’s intention to start a petition drive aimed at putting gay marriage back on the state-wide ballot in November of next year.

There are also ongoing stories with lower profiles worth following. Two southern states passed laws prohibiting individual municipalities from imposing regulations aimed at fighting certain public health scourges like obesity, such as requiring restaurants to list nutritional information on their menus, or remove all trans fats from what they serve their customers.

The National Restaurant Association applauded the action taken by Florida and Alabama (Georgia, Tennessee, Utah, and Arizona have similar laws on the books), but numerous public health advocacy groups expressed concerns, suggesting that the new statutes are another case of big business triumphing over what’s best for the general public.

Former mobster Whitey Bulger is back in custody after 16 years of hiding from authorities, and there is much speculation on what the alleged hit man will have to say at his trial. Once a government informant whose testimony revealed significant corruption within the FBI, there’s no guarantee the 81-year-old Bulger ”“ who, given the 19 murders he’s accused of doesn’t seem to have much to bargain with ”“ won’t snitch again, nor is there any way of knowing who he might roll over on this time around.

Some things being reported in the media are of questionable newsworthiness. Over the long weekend, cookie magnate Wally “Famous” Amos celebrated his 75th birthday and broadcast journalist Geraldo Rivera turned 68. In addition, Canadian professional wrestler Bret “Hitman” Hart turned 54 on Saturday, although so far there’s been no confirmation he was Whitey Bulger’s favorite grappler.

But though it may be hard to believe, there are stories far less significant than celebrity birthdays getting widespread national coverage, and not just incidents involving congressmen from New York sending shirtless photos of themselves to strangers they’re pursuing electronically. The most recent example is the decision of National Basketball Association owners to lock out the players after negotiations over a new labor deal stalled last Friday. It’s worth noting that according to a study released by a British website devoted to keeping fans updated on important developments in the sports business, the average salary for an NBA player last season was $4.79 million, or about $92,199 per week.

The National Football League has its own labor concerns. Their players are also currently locked out, although given their comparatively paltry annual earnings (the median NFL player salary is a measly $770,000) and increasing evidence that American professional football players are doomed to post-athletic lives of profound physical and mental disabilities, they might be slightly more worthy of sympathy than their NBA comrades.

It’s hard to fathom why average citizens are willing to hand over so many of their hard-earned dollars to franchise owners with whom they have absolutely nothing in common in order to watch major league professional athletes with whom they also have nothing in common bash each other’s brains in (NFL) or vie for lucrative endorsement deals (NBA), but as journalist H.L. Mencken famously said, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

But what if there’s no NFL or NBA to tune into this fall? Addicted fans are already in despair, wondering what life would be like with no NFL football and/or NBA basketball this fall.

Here are some suggestions for what these people can do instead of watching televised sports on Sundays this fall: Take a walk. Read a book. Ride a bike. Spend quality time with your children. Spend quality time with your significant other. (Those without a significant other could try shutting off the TV and interacting with other people, regardless of their significance.)

Spend quality time with friends. Make new friends. Play some pick-up basketball or backyard football. Go to a church, synagogue, or mosque. Talk to the neighbors. Rake some leaves. Help the neighbor(s) rake some leaves.

Or for those who can’t get off the couch, grab some Famous Amos cookies and turn on the TV. Maybe Geraldo Rivera will be doing a special Bret “Hitman” Hart retrospective on the Spike Channel.

— Andy Young teaches in Kennebunk and lives in Cumberland.

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