Forgotten panties were attention-getter

As watched the morning news on Monday while waiting for my youngest daughter to head to surgery to repair some damage to her shoulder, I also watched the people around me in the waiting room. They seemed disinterested in the happenings being discussed by the talking heads on television.That is, they were disinterested in most of the happenings being discussed.President Barack Obama gave a speech at Notre Dame University on Sunday at the school's graduation ceremony. That was a hot topic for the talking heads. I think they said 27 people were arrested for protesting the president's appearance at the Catholic university. The people arrested protested because his views on abortion were in direct conflict with the views of the Catholic church. Like I said, it was a hot topic. It took up nearly 15 minutes of the news program on Monday morning.I watched the program and listened to what the talking heads had to say. It appeared to me that those people around me were ignoring this major news story. Not one of those people looked up to see what was on the television in that waiting room.The next item being discussed on the television news program was concerning the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, saying in a recent news conference that the Central Intelligence Agency had lied to her about the torture methods being used to extract information from enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay prison. She did not exactly say the CIA lied, she just nodded when asked if the CIA had lied. The comment - rather the nod - starteda firestorm of controversy. Republicans, fellow Demorcats and CIA Director Leon Panetta. Panetta was extremely critical of Pelosi's comments - or nod - saying, "CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing the enhanced techniques that had been employed." Panetta says CIA documents confirm the truth was told to Pelosi. He also sent a memo to CIA employees to encourage them saying, "Our task is to tell it like it is - even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it." He further stated in the memo, "My advice - indeed, my direction - to you is straightforward: Ignore the noise and stay focused on your mission. We have too much work to do to be distracted from our job of protecting this country." His words apparently insinuated that Pelosi was not interested in the truth nor interested in protecting our country. Like I said, the news story was controversial and should have grabbed the attention of the viewing audiance.I looked around the room and not a head, other than mine, was watching the talking heads discuss the topic. I was wondering what was wrong with these people? Those were two news stories that should have been of great interest to people wishing to keep up with what was happening in our country on this day. But no, no one watched or seemed to care.Then a news story came on about a 16-year-old female student at Sickle High in Tampa, Fla., who was captured in a photograph in the school's yearbook sans panties. Every head in the room turned to focus on the story being told. One woman even got up from her seat to get a better view of the television. It seems the student decided not to wear underpants on the day the photograph was taken because she did not want her panty lines to show. Instead, according to the story, something else of her anatomy showed. The television blurred the specific area in question. The student's mother wants all the yearbooks recalled and reprinted without the photo that has caused her daughter to miss school for over a week due to embarrassment. to me, it was stupid story that should never have made the news at any level - locally, regionally or nationally. But, there it was and everyone was watching.The mother feels the photo will ruin her daughter's life. The photo will follow her throughout her life. Her daughter will never be able to face the other students in her school. The administration says it is a shadow that is seen in the photograph and nothing else. The administration says the student should return to school and laugh it off. The student's mother says the school and its officials are exploiting her daughter by distributing the yearbooks.I could not care less about the story, but it was the item that people were watching int he waiting room at Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital on Monday morning. Several made comments about how silly the story was. Others in the room said the yearbook should be reprinted. I guess they do not realize the cost involved. If anything, and I am not syaing anything should be done, the school officials could use a permanent marker to blackout the area of the photograph that is causing the stir. I do not know what can be done to remove the photos on the Internet that are being distributed by several sites that show the area of the photograph without a blur. Back in my high school days - before the dinosaurs left the earth - there was a photograph in my senior yearbook showing a portion of the anatomy of a basketball player hanging from his shorts. How the photograph got past the students and teachers who prepared the yearbook is beyond me. But, it was there and is still there today. That student's parents did not demand the school to recall and reprint the yearbook. Everyone just laughed it off - even the basketball player. However, that was then. Times have changed. Honest mistakes were forgiven. And the news media had better things to report.Yes, it is an embarrassment for the young girl, but maybe she will learn a lesson from this event and wear her underpants from now on. If her mother had taught her that to begin with, there would be no story. And, maybe, the people in the waiting room on Monday morning would have continued to ignore the morning news show all together.