This is more than a threat to my hometown, and to our neighboring communities. It is a threat to national security greater than most Americans can even contemplate, because so few of them know how dependent they are on the eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico. This is, as one magazine put it recently, Katrina meets Chernobyl.

I am leaving this morning, but I am leaving changed.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a compromise policy put into place after newly elected President Bill Clinton failed to persuade Congress and the military command to lift all restrictions on the service of homosexuals in the armed forces. According to the policy, service personnel would not be asked about their sexual orientation, but if a homosexual orientation became a known issue, the individual could be discharged from the armed forces.

Since 1970, the marriage rate in America has plunged in half according to The State of Our Unions 2009. Why didn't the percentage of married couples increase if two-thirds of cohabiting couples marry?

Nevertheless, there are "experts" who disagree, and we are scheduling a 75 minute

Duin, 54, said she was dismissed Tuesday, a decision she believes came in retaliation for her published comments. To make matters more painful, Duin was given the news while her 5-year-old daughter Olivia was visiting the newsroom. On top of that, Duin had to pack up and remove her belongings while on crutches, the result of a recent foot injury.

Don Meyer, a spokesman for the Times, did not return a call seeking comment.