Missed

I have witnessed a lot during my career. My aggressive nature as a reporter has allowed me access some historical events. But, I have also missed a lot of news and experiences due to chance and timing. Some were monumental events while others were just small incidents that I wished I witnessed. Below is a list of events that I missed.   

Kicking Some Ass – Hours after covering one of the hundreds of protest-like events in Wisconsin over the past year, a source told me that I missed it. After I left to file my story, a 87-year-old woman rolled up to the protest in a wheelchair. The feisty frail woman told my source that if she were to meet Gov. Scott Walker, she planned to “kick his ass.” Can I get that on the record?

The Greatest Missed Opportunity – My dearest friend’s father works in the advertising business in Chicago. He once had a all-day shoot with Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali. The greatest and the greatest in the same room the entire day. The friend invited me to have a private audience with Ali and Jordan – the two of the greatest athletes and important cultural figures in my lifetime. I declined. I had to work.

Presidential Veto – A friend, who’s father is a highly regarded U.S. Senator, called me one day about 15 years ago, to invite me to dinner. She told me that the private dinner guests included, among others, herself, her father and President Bill Clinton.  I declined. I didn’t have a suit.

Presidential Veto II – Election night 2008 and I was in a newsroom in Racine, Wisconsin instead of in Grant Park in Chicago. Sans political views, the night a black man is elected to be President of the United States goes down as one of the half a dozen most important events in our country’s history.  You go and then you tell your grandchildren.

Pick-up Truck – I went to cover Hurricane Katrina a few years back. I was with a group of men who traveled from Milwaukee to Louisiana with supplies and food. We got to the outskirts of the city when they decided to stop because of the dangers. We met a local who was headed to New Orleans to help in the rescue mission. He had a pick-up truck, a shot gun and room for a roving reporter. My choice – to head home with the group or to go on to New Orleans. I choose to go home to Wisconsin instead of heading to the heart of New Orleans.