Sometimes you get so involved in your own thing that you missed other events that you'd like to at least have the opportunity to comment on. Well, I missed two, so I'm taking care of that right now.

The first one I missed was World Diabetes Day, which I'd never heard of until the day after; ugh. It was actually established in 1991, but became a true worldwide event this year because of the participation of the United Nations. In Manhattan, thousands of people joined hands to form a large blue circle, which I've learned is the symbol of the day. Not that I'd have gone, but being diabetic myself, it would have been interesting to find out what was going on around the world on that day, while it was going on.

The second event occurred today, which I learned about while taking a morning shower, that being the protest against racism in Washington, D.C., being led by Reverend Al Sharpton. The premise of this march was to express displeasure at the lack of upholding civil rights laws or prosecuting hate crimes. Supposedly, the number was impressive, and from all over the country; how the heck did I miss knowing about it? Though Rev. Sharpton was at the forefront, many other black politicians and celebrities happened to show up for the march, which went past the Justice Department. Spokesmen for the department say they prosecute vigorously, but the numbers show that in 1997, the department reported and investigated referrals of 799 hate crimes, but that dropped to 256 this year. In 1997, the department brought charges in 76 hate crime cases, but this year, charges were brought in 15 cases. And, in 1997 there were 64 convictions for violations of federal hate crime statutes and only 17 this year.

So, I missed both, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to bring each to the attention of others who might have missed it. I hope I'm more on the ball next time.