Shhhhhhh! It's a secret.

Believe it or not, there were two big stories this weekend.

Both were about catastrophic scenarios involving devastating force. Both were about our concern with saving thousands of American lives. Both had organizers and observers and volunteers and dedicated participants. Both had roll calls of the fallen, one of which already holds over 1,900 names.

One of these events didn't live up to expectations. One appears to have swelled beyond what was initially anticipated. And only one dominated the airwaves. Care to guess which?

Of course, the storm in our Gulf was an extremely important bit of news, especially in light of what we witnessed just three weeks ago. But the huge outpouring of opposition to the storm in that other Gulf should certainly have rated equal attention from network and cable news departments.

There were two big stories this weekend, but only one of them involved much more than our fragile ability to survive the weather. The one that was relegated to an occasional ticker-tape crawl at the bottom of your screen was really about the very character of our nation; the daily slaughter of our children; our standing in the world community; and, quite possibly, the future of global peace and stability.

The groundswell of protest that filled the streets of Washington Saturday deserved maximum exposure, given its importance to all Americans (whether they realize it yet, or not). But for most of our fellow countrymen, who caught sight of an occasional news headline throughout the day, it was almost as if nothing of note happened East of the Texas/Louisiana border. Or, as I came to think of it, "All Rita, All The Time".

There were two big stories this weekend. Too bad one of them's kind of a secret.