A HOLE IN TIME ...

Occasionally, while watching a news show, some reporter will refer to an event that happened, maybe 15 years ago that I don't remember ever happening.

I've always followed the news closely, and I have a fairly good memory - so it puzzles me when someone mentions an event that I have no clue ever occured.

When that happens, I immediately jump on Google to look the event up to get information on it and some clue as to why I never heard about it. When I find the information - I look at the date the event occured to determine what I might have been doing that day that caused me to completely miss the event.

Now, I'm an old US Navy Submarine Sailor and, nine times out of ten - I'll find that the strange event in question occured during one of those times when I was deployed on a Submarine on a Cold War patrol. Voila! That's the reason! If I was at sea on my sub during the time the event took place - I never heard about it because we didn't get much news while submerged on those patrols. Usually we got almost none at all.

It's a strange feeling - whenever I find an event that occured during my lifetime and I completely missed it. It's like I wasn't even on the planet when it occurred (though I was) - it's like A HOLE IN TIME. Like I died for a few months and then was suddenly ressurected - with the memory of what occured in the world before a submarine deployment - and after the deployment when we returned to port - but absolutely no memory of what transpired in between.

I'm having the same experience now - only it's not due to any submarine deployment I was on - it has to do with being without any news media at all (save emergency radio broadcasts) for about two months after Hurricane KATRINA struck.

You see, if you were outside the disaster area of Katrina - if you live in a section of the country that didn't lose power, cable and satellite - then YOU GOT TO WATCH the news unfold on the Hurricane events as they occurred.

I didn't - my brain contains only the information that I personally witnessed immediately after the Hurricane.

Here's an example - I just found out YESTERDAY that New Orleans had over 200 buses in the city which could have been used to evacuate people before the hurricane. Instead - the buses were left to flood - then our local politicians blamed George Bush for not sending us buses. So Ray Nagin and Kathy Blanco had the evacuation transportation right at their fingertips - and neglected to use it!!!!?????

Wow! I never knew that!

And I also didn't see THIS EXCHANGE between our Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu and Chris Wallace on Fox News. I've never been a fan of Mary landrieu - but now I'm convinced this woman is from Mars! She looks like a complete idiot in this video!

Why am I bringing all this up?

Well the first reason I'm bringing it up is to highlight the fact that, if I didn't hear about an item or an event that was published in the national media in the days immediately following Katrina - it's a good bet that THOUSANDS of other Louisianans like me missed it too.

Wonder what the ramifications of that will be for local politicians who screwed up down here - but we never heard about it? Chances are, we won't hold them accountable for something we didn't know they did (or didn't do in the case of the flooded buses).

The second-reason I'm bringing it up is because, even though all of this stuff is old news to you folks out there in the heartland - I'm still going to be dragging it up in this blog in the future because, to me and my neighbors - this stuff isn't old news - it's new news to us because we never heard about it! And we NEED to talk about this stuff because we need to hold these politicians accountable. We need to punish the ones that failed us - and reward the ones that came through for us in our hour of need. Of course - that latter category is going to be a SMALL one!

So I apologize in advance if I hit some items here in the future that makes you wonder about my sense of timing - and commenting on news in a timely manner. Bear in mind - you probably know a lot more than I do (even though I lived through the mess) because you were in constant touch with cable news.

As I "catch up" on this "hole in time", I'm finding that my anger toward local politicians in this State is HIGHLY JUSTIFIED. In fact, it's making me even more angry.

Of course, God help me - when I'm mad I have to write!

Don't say I didn't warn you!